|
From a story in the March
16, 2006 edition of the Omaha World Herald:
BOSTON (AP) - For elderly people who suffer bouts of depression,
drugs work surprisingly better than psychotherapy at keeping
these black spells from returning, suggests the longest study
ever in patients so old.
The findings from the two-year study may encourage some doctors
to prescribe antidepressants for longer periods, perhaps even
for life, in patients who have been depressed.
"It's a good idea for you to continue to take the medication
indefinitely, just as you take your blood pressure medication
or diabetes medication," said psychiatrist Dr. Charles
Reynolds at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study.
"It's a very new approach."
Backed by the National Institutes of Health, the study responds
to a rising trend to prescribe medicine not just to treat
depression, but to keep it from coming back. Results were
published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Click
here to search the Omaha World-Herald's archives
for the complete story.
|
