Experience in application of various antidepressants in gerontology

: The article presents data on the effectiveness of comorbide therapy with amlodipine and antidepressants of various groups in patients more than 65 years old suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD), arterial hypertension (AH), and comorbide depression. Eighty-eight patients with stable FC I-III stenocardia, accompanied by AH and comorbide depression, were examined. The patients were divided into three groups. Patients in group I (n = 21) received amlodipine therapy in a dose of 2.5 to 5 mg/day with amitriptyline in a dose of 25 mg/day. Group II patients (n = 25) received tianeptine in a dose of 25 mg/day in addition to amlodipine in a dose of 2.5 to 5 mg/day. Group III patients (n = 20) were treated with a combination of amlodipine 2.5 to 5 mg/day with sertraline in a dose of 50 mg/day. The comparison group consisted of 22 patients who received monotherapy in a dose of 2.5 to 5 mg/day. The study revealed that all these combinations with different antidepressants significantly lowered the average depression score and significantly improved the quality of life, unlike amlodipine monotherapy. The best combination was amlodipine plus tianeptine, which did not only demonstrate antidepressive and anxiolytic effects, but also led to improvement in prognostically significant parameters of cardiac rhythm variability in elderly patients with comorbide depressive disorders underlied by stable stenocardia and arterial hypertension.