[Depression in elderly patients. Value of tianeptine in 140 patients treated for 1 year]

An open multicenter study of the efficacy and acceptability of tianeptine, a new antidepressant structurally related to tricyclic antidepressants, was conducted by 36 gerontologists. There were 228 patients in the study; 140 were treated for one year. The patients' overall MADRS score started to decrease on day 14 and continued to decline to month 3. An improvement in depression was again observed near the end of the treatment period from month 9 to month 12. This pattern of improvement was also found with the HARS, the first item on the CGI scale and the Zung self-evaluation scale. These findings demonstrate the beneficial effect of long-term treatment in depressed elderly patients. Ten patients (4.4 percent) dropped out because of side effects: mainly drowsiness, anxiety or gastrointestinal disorders. The benefit/risk ratio (CGI, item 3), an expression of treatment effectiveness and acceptability, was very satisfactory even in these elderly patients. Regularly performed laboratory tests and clinical examinations (including weight and blood pressure) revealed no significant changes. Finally, somatic disorders, essentially cardiovascular and neurological diseases often occurring in depressed patients, remained remarkably quiescent throughout the entire treatment period.