Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of venlafaxina in 50 year out patients or older.

The purpose of this report is to consider the performance of venlafaxine as an antidepressive drug in 50 year patients or older, with special emphasis in 60 year patients or older. Venlafaxine is an antidepressive drug that s electively blocks the reuptake of serotonin and noradrenalin. Its safety an d tolerability profile has been well studied; some reports establish that i t may cause some variations in blood pressure in adults under treatment. Fo rty-four 50 year old patients or older were studied; a subset of fourteen 6 0 year old patients or older was also established. Patients should comply w ith clinical symptomatology suggestive of major depression according to the DSM-III-R parameters. Three treatment groups were formed: those with mild depression (average HAM-D: 26.7 points) received 37.7 to 75 mg/day; those w ith moderate depression (average HAM-D: 30.2 points) received 75 to 150 mg/ day; and those with severe depression (average HAM-D: 33.2 points) received 175-300 mg/day. The symptomatologic evolution during treatment was determi ned by means of the HAM-D and the CGI (Clinical Global Impressions) adminis tered also during the subsequent visits. Improvement of the first two treat ment groups was evident land statistically significant) from the first week of treatment, remaining as such during the whole study (42 days). The inci dence of adverse events was similar to that reported by others. Patients' t olerability was satisfactory and no significant variations in blood pressur e lectures were observed. Venlafaxine turned out to be an efficient, safe a nd well tolerated antidepressive drug in 50 year old outpatients or older.