Citation

Thomas P, Hazif-Thomas C. Revue de Geriatrie 2009; 34(8): 657-664.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The depression of the elderly subject has drawn the attention of geriatricians for a long time. Many guidelines for good practices were established to point up the priority of this public health issue in our country. Depression featured prominently in the Mental Health plan 2005-2008, and many works concerning this disease are currently realized, especially by the National Authority of Health. Depression is often under-diagnosed and its therapy, either medicinal or non-medicinal, requires optimization. The elderly depression is frequent and can take many forms. However, in the elderly and very old, depression is mainly characterized by its association with polypathology and polypharmacy (a well-known corollary in this population), with complex environmental factors (social and geographical isolation, weakening events of this period of the life, such as successive mournings, looking after husband or wife with Alzheimer's disease - to be informal caregiver), and with nursing home admission. Antidepressant drugs as well as psychotherapy have a prominent place in the taking care of this disorder but they often do not provide evidence for specificity in this elderly population. We will present herein a critical review of two studies on the escitalopram, which have been published in 2007 and 2008, and could be of interest to throw light on the effectiveness, tolerance and pharmaco-economical impact of this molecule in the elderly subject.

Language: fr

Keywords

Depression; Suicide; Relapse; Elderly subject; Escitalopram; Antidepressant-SSRIs