Antidepressants for older people: What can we learn from the current evidence base?

Are antidepressants effective in the treatment of depression in the elderly? A critical umbrella review on reviews, methods, and future perspectives

“…Katona et al (2014) umbrella review collected evidence of antidepressants’ efficacy in the elderly aged >55 from seven identified systematic reviews. No data was pooled.…”

“…The secondary focus was to assess effectiveness concerning AEs where applicable and, third, to put critical perspectives on current medical practice and the majority view. For this, we first describe and compare the evidence for the effectiveness and AEs of antidepressants in the elderly based on a total of 10 reviews identified comprising the last decade (Felice et al, 2015; Gutsmiedl et al, 2020a; Katona et al, 2014; Kok et al, 2012; Krause et al, 2019; Mallery et al, 2019; Tedeschini et al, 2011; Tham et al, 2016; Thorlund et al, 2015; Topiwala et al, 2014). Second, the limitations of the evidence and methods are critically evaluated.…”

Psychotherapie der Altersdepression

“…Das Demenz risiko ist verdoppelt [5,6]. Systematische Übersichts arbeiten und Metaanalysen zeigen allenfalls mode rate Effekte für die Wirksamkeit von Antidepressiva bei älteren Depressiven [7][8][9]. Die epidemiologischen Daten, die mit Altersdepressionen verbundenen er heblichen Risiken und die nicht zufriedenstellenden pharmakotherapeutischen Möglichkeiten legen die Frage nach a nderen s innvollen T herapieansätzen nahe.…”

Collaborative Care Models to Address Late-Life Depression: Lessons for Low-And-Middle-Income Countries

“…According to researchers, first-line treatment for both mild and severe geriatric depression should be a combination of both antidepressants (especially ISRS) and psychotherapy ( 7 , 17 , 19 ) in order to be effective. Recent studies have reported improvement rates with antidepressants to be about 33% responses to treatment varied between 44 and 48% ( 20 , 21 ). Nevertheless, even though medical treatment contributes significantly to the treatment of depression, only 30–40% of depressed older adults actually adhere to their medication ( 18 ).…”