Pharmacology of Depression in the Aged: Evaluation of Gerovital H3 as an Antidepressant Drug

Zung, William W. K.; Gianturco, Daniel T.; Pfeiffer, Eriuc; Wang, Hsioh-Shan; Whanger, Alan D.; Bridge, T. Peter; Potkin, Steven G.

doi:10.1016/s0033-3182(74)71260-9

Cited by 33 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…* References 20,22,23,25,26,[28][29][30][31][32]39,42,43,45,47,49,[50][51][52][53]56,58,62,[65][66][67]20,[33][34][35][36]47,55,57,59,60,[62][63][64]. …”

Section: Comparisons Using Hdrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In comparison groups that included 2 or more treatment comparisons, at least 1 of which did not use the HDRS, 7 additional comparisons were found; none of these was statistically significant and their inclusion had little impact on the effect sizes or homogeneity statistics ( Table 2). Among 9 other individual comparisons that did not use the HDRS, not included in these comparison groups, only those of Gerovital H3 (a solution containing 2% procaine hydrochloride with benzoic acid as a preservative and potassium metabisulfite as an antioxidant) vs either imipramine or placebo 67 and reminiscence therapy vs attention controls 33 showed a significant benefit of treatment.…”

Section: Comparisons Using Other Scalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…* References 18,23,[33][34][35]53,55,57,67. 62 1985 Nortriptyline vs Placebo 10/14 Georgotas et al, 39 1986 Nortriptyline vs Placebo 25/28 Katz et al, 50 1990 Nortriptyline vs Placebo 12/11 Weissman et al, 66 1992 Imipramine vs Placebo 13/12 Summary Antianxiety Drugs vs Placebo Beutler et al, 20 1987 Alprazolam vs Placebo 12/15 Bohm et al, 22 1990 Buspirone vs Placebo 12/8 Weissman et al, 66 1992 Alprazolam vs Placebo 10/12 Summary SSRI vs Placebo Tollefson and Holman, 65 42 1980 Trazodone vs Placebo 12/13 Kane et al, 49 1983 1. Bupropion (high dose) vs Placebo 11/5 2.…”

Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effectiveness of Treatments of Depression in Older Ambulatory Patients

McCusker¹,

Cole²,

Keller³

et al. 1998

Arch Intern Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of acutephase pharmacological and psychological treatments of depression in older ambulatory patients by systematically reviewing original research relevant to this topic.Methods: Searches in MEDLINE and PsycINFO and manual reviews of bibliographies located 233 articles. Of these, 40 (37 different studies) met our 8 inclusion criteria: original research, written in English or French, subjects 55 years and older, diagnosis of depression, outpatient or community setting, prospective controlled study design, acute-phase pharmacological or psychological treatment, and outcome measure of depression. Two independent reviewers assessed the methodological quality of each article using a standard form and a quality score was computed. Quantitative data on levels of depression at the end of treatment were abstracted. Results were grouped by specific treatment comparison (type of treatment and type of control group). For comparisons that used the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, we computed mean posttreatment differences. Effect sizes were computed from the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale or an alternative scale.Results: In studies that compared active drugs with placebo, the heterocyclic drugs significantly reduced the posttreatment Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score (mean difference, −5.78; 95% confidence interval, −8.31 to −3.25); other drugs had smaller effects. In studies that compared active drugs, there were no significant differences overall between different classes of drugs; selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors appeared to be as effective as heterocyclic drugs. Rational psychological treatments performed significantly better than no treatment (mean posttreatment Hamilton Depression Rating Scale difference, −7.25; 95% confidence interval, −10.10 to −4.40) but not significantly better than that for controls who received similar attention. Adjustment for the study quality score did not affect these results.Conclusions: Based on comparisons with untreated controls, heterocyclic antidepressants and rational psychological therapies appear to be the most effective treatments for older ambulatory patients with mild to moderate depression. Based on drug-drug comparisons, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors appear to be as effective as heterocyclic drugs. However, overall, the magnitude of the treatment effects is modest. Limitations in the quantity and quality of appropriate studies suggest a sober approach to treatment in this population. Med. 1998;158:705-712 F IVE PUBLISHED meta-analyses of treatments of depression in the elderly (3 on antidepressants, 1-3 1 on psychosocial therapies, 4 and 1 on both 5 ) and a consensus conference 6 have concluded that pharmacological and psychosocial treatments are effective. However, these reviews included many studies of psychiatric inpatients who usually have more severe depression than that seen in ambulatory settings and did not compare pharmacological and psychological approaches. Therefore, we performed this meta-analysi...

show abstract

“…* References 20,22,23,25,26,[28][29][30][31][32]39,42,43,45,47,49,[50][51][52][53]56,58,62,[65][66][67]20,[33][34][35][36]47,55,57,59,60,[62][63][64]. …”

Section: Comparisons Using Hdrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparisons Using Other Scalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Effectiveness of Treatments of Depression in Older Ambulatory Patients

McCusker¹,

Cole²,

Keller³

et al. 1998

Arch Intern Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The most tenable conclusion to be drawn from the studies reviewed is that suggestive evidence of a transient antidepressant effect was obtained. Defects in the designs of the studies, statistical analysis, and instruments employed [except for the studies of Sakalis et al (54) and Zung et al (40)] make it impossible to state unequivocally that Gerovital is an effective antidepressant. 8 More carefully controlled studies should be undertaken to determine definitively whether Gerovital is an effective antidepressant agent.…”

Section: Summary Of Data On Procaine As a Mood Elevatormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases, Aslan noted that genital atrophy in elderly women was slowed and in others a return of normal appearance of the vulvovaginal mucosa and repigmentation of the labia minora occurred. Three cases of amenorrhea in women aged [35][36][37][38][39][40] were successfully treated by one or two series of intramuscular procaine injections, and several cases of failure to conceive were likewise successfully treated.…”

Section: Procaine Effects On Sexual and Endocrinologic Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The systemic use of procaine in the treatment of the elderly: a review

Ostfeld¹,

Smith²,

Stotsky³

1977

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article is a review and evaluation of the world literature on the systemic use of procaine in the treatment of the aging process and the common chronic diseases of later life. Included are data from 285 articles and books, describing treatment in more than 100,000 patients in the past 25 years. Except for a possible antidepressant effect, there is no convincing evidence that procaine (or Gerovital, of which procaine is the major component) has any value in the treatment of disease in older patients. If procaine has an antidepressant effect, there is some likelihood that this accounts for the reports of decreased complaints referable to the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, endocrine, sexual, gastrointestinal and respiratory systems.During the past 25 years, a lengthy series of papers on the therapeutic effects of systemically administered procaine has appeared in the European and American literature. The pharmaceutical preparation most commonly used in the reported studies has been Gerovital (GH-3), which is basically a 2 percent solution of procaine. The

show abstract

Antidepressants in states of cognitive dysfunction

Cohen

Sunderland

Aulakh

1984

Drug Development Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several approaches are described for the design of pharmacologic strategies for the manipulation of cognition. By a variety of criteria, it is concluded that antidepressants deserve a trial in some patients with cognitive dysfunction. Depression is an illness with prominent cognitive dysfunction that shares, to some extent, cognitive and biochemical impairments similar to those observed in cognitive dysfunction of organic etiology. Antidepressants appear to produce their beneficial effect on cognition in depression by inducing slow adaptive changes in catecholamine and indoleamine pathways, therein promoting alterations in the individual's central motivational state. Animal data supporting these ideas are reported. As reviewed, few satisfactory studies of antidepressants in cognitive dysfunction of organic etiology appear in the literature, perhaps as the result of the potent anticholinergic properties of the most popular antidepressant drugs.

show abstract

Pharmacology of Depression in the Aged: Evaluation of Gerovital H3 as an Antidepressant Drug

Cited by 33 publications

References 6 publications

Effectiveness of Treatments of Depression in Older Ambulatory Patients

Effectiveness of Treatments of Depression in Older Ambulatory Patients

The systemic use of procaine in the treatment of the elderly: a review

Antidepressants in states of cognitive dysfunction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About