Antidepressants for seniors

What is the best antidepressant for elderly people? What are the top antidepressants? Best Antidepressants For the Elderly 1. TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation).

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

Traditional Antidepressant Medications. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). Use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Consider electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reynolds says many older patients are taken off antidepressant drugs within six months or a year of initial treatment.

SNRIs such as venlafaxine are known to raise blood pressure, which can be more severe in the elderly. Therefore, these drugs should not be used in older people with hypertension.

The use of antidepressants with other drugs, such as pregabalin , can cause sleepiness, dizziness, and falls. Tricyclic antidepressants (TCA’s). Examples: Nortriptyline, amitriptyline.

These drugs are highly anticholinergic and can exacerbate multiple different disease states. When using antidepressant medication to treat the elderly, it is important to be aware that older adults have response rates similar to those of younger adults. Also, antidepressants have similar efficacy when used to treat elderly patients with and without multiple medical comorbidities. Over the course of a year, 10.

In the study, adults over who took newer generation antidepressants selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , or SSRIs had a greater risk having a stroke or seizures than those who took older. Strategies for switching or augmenting antidepressants are discussed. Older patients should be treated for at least a year from when clinical improvement is note. After adjustment for age, sex, education, and depressive symptoms,.

SSRI’s are the class of choice for initial antidepressant therapy. However, it has some anticholinergic effects that make it not so desirable for use in the elderly. Another SSRI that makes the naughty list in the elderly is fluvoxamine. Some of the drugs that are usually used on dementia patients, especially when they are elderly.

SSRI antidepressants (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) are usually used.

Response to antidepressants in the elderly varies widely from to , compared with to for placebo, with inconsistencies in part owing to use of secondary analysis, variable age cutoffs, and short trials. Efficacy might decrease with patient age. The newer SSRIs are effective and generally well tolerated by elderly patients. These drugs have largely supplanted the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) as first-line agents due to their comparative cardiac safety, ease of use, tolerability, minimal anticholinergic effects, and low lethality in overdose.

Several antidepressants are efficacious in elderly patients with a major depressive episode without psychotic features. Selection should be based on the best side effect profile and lowest risk of drug-drug interactions. Find a Treatment Center for You.

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