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Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors Don't Change Mood and Personality in Healthy Elderly: Presented at AAGP

By Bonnie Darves

HONOLULU, HA -- March 5, 2003 -- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI s) do not appear to significant change measures of mood and personality in healthy elderly patients.

The findings were presented here March 3^rd at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

The results are promising, researchers said, because of the widely cited concerns that SSRIs can alter emotions and personality function -- causing increased apathy and affective blunting, as well as potentially dangerous behavior such as suicidal tendency.

"This has been a concern about SSRI treatment, so we wanted to evaluate effects on healthy elderly patients," said lead researcher Patricia Furlan, PhD, of the Philadelphia VA Medical Center in Pennsylvania, United States.

In the double-blind study, researchers assessed the effects of SSRIs treatment on elderly volunteers between the ages of 65 and 84.

After a week of observation, 30 patients received either 10 to 40 mg daily of paroxetine, or 50 to 150 mg of sertraline, for 3 weeks. Nineteen patients were given placebo. The patients who took SSRIs were analyzed together as a single group.

While SSRI treatment in the treatment group significantly reduced negative affect compared to placebo (f=8.35, p=0.004), positive affect remained unchanged.

"We didn't find a significant alteration in the positive affect in the SSRI group, even after controlling for events on a daily basis," Dr. Furlan said.

She noted that the small sample size was a limitation of the study, and suggested that more studies should be conducted to determine whether similar results would occur in a larger population.

This study was supported by a National Institutes of Health grant and by an unrestricted grant from Pfizer, Inc.


[Study title: SSRIs Alter Negative, But Not Positive, Affect In Healthy Elderly Volunteers]

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