Effects of Sertraline-Olanzapine on Weight, Cholesterol May Differ According to Patient Age

Older adults with psychotic depression may experience less weight gain and increases in total cholesterol than younger adults when taking a combination of sertraline and olanzapine over an extended period, suggests astudy in theAmerican Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.The findings are from theStudy Pharmacotherapy of Psychotic Depression II (STOP-PD II). The original STOP-PD trial established that a combination therapy of the antidepressant sertraline plus the antipsychotic olanzapine was more likely to lead to remission of psychotic depression than olanzapine alone over 12 weeks of therapy. STOP-PD II examined the risks and benefits of patients continuing to take sertraline and olanzapine to prevent a relapse of the symptoms. (Eli Lilly provided olanzapine and matching placebo pills and Pfizer provided sertraline; neither company provided funding for this study.)“Older adults are more likely to experience psychotic features during a major depressive episode than younger adults,” wrote Alastair J. Flint, M.B., of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and colleagues. Metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, also increa se later in life. “It is therefore important to determine whether there are age-related differences in anthropometric and metabolic outcomes associated with the treatment of psychotic depression with antipsychotic medication,” Flint and colleagues wrote.They analyzed data from 269 adults aged 18 to 85 years with psych...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: age American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry depression olanzapine psychotic depression sertraline STOP-PD II weight Source Type: research