Venlafaxine extended-release in patients older than 80 years with depressive syndrome

✍ Scribed by Enrique Baca; Miquel Roca; Carmen Garcia-Calvo; Rita Prieto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 91 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.1468

✦ Synopsis

Objectives:

The aim of this evaluation was to assess the efficacy and safety of venlafaxine extended-release (er) in very old primary care out-patients with depressive syndrome and associated anxiety symptoms.

Methods:

This was an observational, naturalistic, multicenter, prospective, open-label study in an outpatient population with a diagnosis of depressive syndrome with anxiety symptoms. minimum scores of 17 and 10 on the hamilton rating scale for depression (ham-d(17)) and anxiety (ham-a), respectively, were required. daily doses of 75 mg to 225 mg of venlafaxine extended release (er) were administered for 24 weeks. effectiveness for depressive-anxious symptomatology was assessed using the ham-d(17) and ham-a scales.

Patients:

The 97 patients discussed in this report are a subgroup comprising all elderly patients, aged >or= 80 years, who were part of the larger observational, naturalistic, multicenter, prospective, open-label study and who had received venlafaxine er for a maximum duration of 24 weeks.

Results:

At endpoint, remission rates were 57.1% (ham-d(17)

Conclusions:

Venlafaxine er was shown to be an effective and safe drug for the treatment of very elderly primary care patients with depressive syndrome and associated anxiety symptoms.