title: Escitalopram for major depression in Parkinson's disease: an open-label, flexible-dosage study.
abstract: Depression and antidepressant use are common in Parkinson's disease, but the benefit of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment in this population has not been established. The authors treated 14 Parkinson's disease patients with major depression with escitalopram in an open-label study. Although treatment was well tolerated and correlated with a significant decrease in Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology score, response and remission rates were only 21% and 14%, respectively. However, half of the subjects met Clinical Global Impression-Improvement criteria for response. In Parkinson's disease, either SSRIs may have limited antidepressant effects, or the use of existing depression diagnostic and rating instruments may be problematic.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, USA. weintrau@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weintraub
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Taraborelli
authors.forename: Knashawn H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Duda
authors.forename: Ira R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Stern
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015283:Citalopram / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
chemical_list: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D015283:Citalopram