Depression Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Depression, including details on clinical depression, medication, symptoms, treatment, counselling, therapy.

An open treatment trial of venlafaxine for elderly patients with dysthymic disorder.

Devanand DP, Juszczak N, Nobler MS, Turret N, Fitzsimons L, Sackeim HA, Roose SP

Late Life Depression Clinic and the Department of Biological Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 126, New York, NY 10032, USA. dpd3@columbia.edu

Treatment response and side effects of venlafaxine were evaluated in an open-label trial of elderly outpatients with dysthymic disorder (DD). Patients received flexible dose (up to 300 mg/d) venlafaxine (Effexor XR) for 12 weeks. Of 23 study patients, 18 completed the trial. Fourteen (60.9%) were responders in intent-to-treat analyses with the last observation carried forward, and 77.8% were responders in completer analyses. Nearly half the sample (47.8%) met criteria for remission. In the intent-to-treat sample, increased severity of depression at baseline was associated with superior response, and the presence of cardiovascular disease was associated with poorer response. Venlafaxine open-label treatment was associated with fairly high response rates and generally good tolerability in elderly patients with DD. These results indicate that in elderly patients with DD, placebo-controlled trials of a dual reuptake inhibitor such as venlafaxine would be needed to assess its efficacy or to compare its efficacy to that of other antidepressants.

Published 9 November 2004 in J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol, 17(4): 219-24.
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