Antidepressiva en vijfenzestigplussers?*
Uit een Australische studie onder ruim 5.000 mannen van 68 jaar en ouder blijkt dat de helft van de mannen die antidepressiva gebruiken om een
depressie te behandelen geen enkele baat heeft bij die medicijnen. Erger nog ze hebben een flink hogere kans om dood te gaan, een kans die nog hoger wordt met de ernst van de symptomen van de depressie.
Antidepressants Fail to Work in Half of Older Men: Study
(WAtoday.com.au) UPDATED 2010-06-29
Scientists at the University of Western Australia have found that more than half of older men who use antidepressants to treat their depression show no improvement and have a substantially greater risk of dying. The study also showed that the men's mortality rate increased with the severity of their depression symptoms. Researchers say their finding suggests that current depression treatments for older men need to be reviewed and improved to help these men avoid both depression and this higher mortality risk. Read full story >
Antidepressants fail on half of older men
Treatment for depression clinically proven safe and effective.
More than half of older men using antidepressants to battle depression do not register any improvement and have a greater risk of dying, a WA study has found.
The University of Western Australia research found men who didn't get any relief from antidepressants had a "substantially" higher risk of dying than men whose depression treatment was successful.
The study, published in the online medical and scientific research journal PLoS-One, is based on a decade of monitoring the health and lifestyles of more than 5000 Perth men aged over 68.
Lead author and Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing research director Professor Osvaldo Almeida said the results indicated more needed to be done to improve current treatments.
"This is a big issue, not only because depression causes significant personal suffering and disability, but also because our results show that these men are also more likely to die," Professor Almeida said.
"We found that older men who were using antidepressants but remained depressed had a substantially higher mortality risk."
"However, men using antidepressants who were free of depressive symptoms had a similar mortality risk over 10 years as the rest of the population."
Researchers used the widely-recognised Geriatric Depression Scale to determine the depression levels of patients.
The mortality rate increased with the severity of depressive symptoms, while the causes of death differed between the two groups.
Cardiovascular diseases are more prevalent amongst those with mild to severe depression and there is a slightly higher rate of cancer amongst men with no depression.
"That might be because the depression might be leading to physiological changes,'' he said.
"With depression being such a disabling condition it's very disappointing that we haven't been able to develop better treatments for patients."
The team is currently running two studies on optimising responses to antidepressant treatment, including the effects of physical activity and social interaction.
"There is now compelling evidence that if people become more socially engaged and physically active that's a good thing and we should be definitely been encouraging that," he
said. (September 2010)
Reacties:
