Study Compares Clinical Outcomes of Older Adults Prescribed 10 Common Antidepressants

Older adults with depression may be least likely to discontinue or switch treatment when prescribed sertraline for the first time compared with other antidepressants, suggests areport inThe American Journal of Psychiatry. The study compared one-year outcomes in 93,000 Danish residents with depression who for the first time filled a prescription for one of 10 antidepressants. The research was funded in part by the Health Research Foundation of the Central Denmark Region.“Although clinical trials are considered the gold standard in drug effectiveness research, their experimental conditions often do not represent complex, real-world settings, primarily because of the exclusion of vulnerable populations such as older adults and individuals with comorbid conditions,” wrote Kazi Ishtiak-Ahmed, Ph.D., of Denmark’s Aarhus University Hospital and colleagues. “Therefore, real-world data are essential and complementary to those clinical trials, particularly for older patients.”Using Danish national registers, the researchers identified adults aged 65 or older who filled a prescription for one of 10 most frequently prescribed antidepressants at a community pharmacy for the first time between 2006 and 2017. Adults who were initially prescribed more than one antidepressant and/or received their first prescription in an inpatient hospital were excluded.The final sample included 93,833 older Danish adults (average age, 78 years) who initiated one of the following:Selective serotoni...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: antidepressants cardiovascular problems death depression falls older adults sertraline The American Journal of Psychiatry treatment discontinuation Source Type: research