SSRIs considered to have the best safety profile in the elderly are citalopram, escitalopram, and sertraline.

What is the best anti anxiety medication for elderly?

Buspirone is an anti-anxiety drug that has been shown to be effective for older adults. Benzodiazepines, another anti-anxiety drug, are effective but should be prescribed carefully to older adults because of risk of memory impairment, unsteadiness, and falls.

Are antidepressants effective for elderly?

Second, antidepressants are effective in treating depression in older populations, although they are not always as effective as we and our patients would like. Third, antidepressants have side effects and risks, some of which can be observed acutely while others may be longer-term consequences.

Is sertraline safe for the elderly?

Sertraline is generally well tolerated in elderly patients with major depressive disorder and lacks the marked anticholinergic effects that characterise the adverse event profiles of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

Which classification of medications is most commonly used to treat late life depression?

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were launched in the mid to late 1980s. This generation of antidepressants is now the most common class used for depression. Examples include citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva), fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), and sertraline (Zoloft).

What is the safest antidepressant for seniors?

SSRIs considered to have the best safety profile in the elderly are citalopram, escitalopram, and sertraline. [16] These have the lowest potential for drug-drug interactions based on their cytochrome P-450 interactions.

Is Paxil safe for elderly?

However, elderly patients may be more sensitive to the effects of this medicine than younger adults, and are more likely to have hyponatremia (low sodium in the blood), which may require caution and an adjustment in the dose for patients receiving paroxetine.

What is the safest antidepressant?

Among the newer antidepressants, bupropion and venlafaxine were associated with the highest case fatality rates. In addition, among SSRIs, citalopram and fluvoxamine appeared to be related to higher mortality rates in overdose, whereas fluoxetine and sertraline were the safest [188].

Is Lexapro good for elderly?

They said antidepressants like Lexapro, made by Forest Laboratories Inc and known generically as escitalopram, may be useful as a new treatment option for older adults with generalized anxiety disorder, a disabling condition that can also cause muscle tension, insomnia and fatigue.

Is Remeron a good antidepressant for the elderly?

Mirtazapine is clearly better tolerated than tricyclic agents and is appropriate for some geriatric patients. Mirtazapine may be especially helpful in those who need a sedating agent or in patients who need to gain weight. An increase in appetite was reported in 17 percent of patients taking mirtazapine.

Is Zoloft good for anxiety for elderly?

Sertraline is FDA-approved for the treatment of panic disorder and social anxiety disorder and has demonstrated effectiveness over worry symptoms when compared with CBT in the elderly [28]. In a randomized single-blinded trial, sertraline was compared with buspirone in the treatment of GAD in the elderly.

Is Lexapro better than Zoloft?

A 2014 study published in International Clinical Psychopharmacology suggested that Lexapro may be more effective and better tolerated than Zoloft or Paxil. Lexapro has different binding site interactions which may lead to better efficacy and tolerability.

Which mood stabilizers are preferred for use in the geriatric population?

Lithium remains the treatment of choice for bipolar mania in elderly patients. Although lithium has greater proven efficacy than other mood stabilizers with respect to treating and preventing manic episodes and reducing suicidal behavior¹⁷ there is a dearth of good studies of its use in the elderly population.

Is Wellbutrin Safe for elderly?

PARIS, FRANCE — September 20, 2006 — Once-daily use of an extended-release formulation of bupropion (Wellbutrin XL(R)) is both efficacious and safe in elderly patients with major depressive disorder, according to a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, flexible-dose, placebo-controlled trial.

What is a happy pill for depression?

“Happy pills” — in particular the anxiolytic drugs Miltown and Valium and the antidepressant Prozac — have been spectacularly successful “products” over the last 5 decades, largely because they have widespread off label use. Miltown, launched in the 1950s, was the first “blockbuster” psychotropic drug in the US.

What are the top 5 antidepressants?

When the researchers checked which depression drugs were tolerated the best, these topped the list:

• Celexa (citalopram)
• Lexapro (escitalopram)
• Prozac (fluoxetine)
• Trintellix (vortioxetine)
• Zoloft (sertraline)