Alastair Flint

..To compare the frequency of anxiety disorders in older and younger persons with major depressive disorder with psychotic features...

..If a benzodiazepine is initiated, pharmacokinetic considerations favour the use of either lorazepam or oxazepam. Buspirone also has a more limited role than antidepressants in the treatment of late-life GAD...

..Given the delayed onset of action of antidepressant medication, the short-term use of adjunctive lorazepam in the first few weeks of treatment may be helpful in selected patients...

..To review literature pertaining to the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in treating late-life depression...

..These findings are consistent with our hypothesis and suggest that age-related changes in the CCK system could contribute to the diminished panicogenic response to exogenous CCK-4 in older persons...

..In this group of elderly depressed patients, medical burden, cognitive impairment, and negative psychosocial circumstances did not contribute in a clinically significant way to variance in severity of symptomatic anxiety...

..The purpose of this exploratory study, therefore, was to examine the factor structure of the HADS in older patients with major depression...

..These findings suggest that pharmacotherapy resistance may constitute a risk factor for relapse or recurrence of remitted geriatric depression, even when patients are maintained on the medication that they eventually respond to...

..For the most part, maximum changes in hormonal levels were not correlated with symptom severity, suggesting that other factors may have contributed to the differential effect of panic on the HPA axis...

..To review the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and treatment of anxiety disorders in late life...

..The purpose of this study was to determine whether elderly patients with psychotic depression differed in long-term outcome from patients with nonpsychotic depression...

..The cumulative probability of remaining well without recurrence was 70%. Longer time to respond to treatment and higher anxiety scores at the time of response predicted shorter time to recurrence...

..Therefore, the authors examined the 2-year outcomes of elderly patients with first-episode major depression following discontinuation of their maintenance antidepressant medication...

..Response to combination pharmacotherapy and to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was evaluated in elderly patients with psychotic depression...

..The goal of this study was to determine whether aging has an effect on healthy subjects' responses to the panicogenic agent cholecystokinin tetrapeptide (CCK-4)...

..The author emphasizes that, because of the high risk of relapse and recurrence, a long-term collaboration between the patient and the physician is required to successfully manage depression in late life...

..To review the drug treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to provide guidelines for the physician on how to integrate these treatments into the overall management of this disorder...

..There is no one 'first-line' antidepressant for elderly patients with depression. Selection of an antidepressant should be made on a case by case basis, taking into account each patient's characteristics...

..The development and assessment of the Delusional Assessment Scale (DAS) are described...

..These findings reinforce the evidence that patients with psychotic depression are at high risk for suicide and underscore the importance of examining correlates of suicidality specific to patients with psychotic depression...

..14-1.05 kg). Cumulative olanzapine dose was also significantly associated with weight gain (P<0.0001). Approximately 60% of completers of the 12-week trial experienced clinically significant weight gain (> or =7% of baseline weight)...

..Major depressive disorder with psychotic features (psychotic depression), though occurring relatively frequently in the general population, is a commonly missed psychiatric diagnosis...

..We assessed the extent to which the pharmacotherapy received by patients with MD-Psy under usual care conforms to these recommendations...

..Further research is needed to determine whether similar findings occur in a community-based sample of older people...

..Remitted subjects are also followed during stabilization to determine the stability of remission and predictors of clinical and functional deterioration. ..