Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of depression in patients with alzheimer’s disease: a treatment-resistant depressive disorder

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of depressive disorders in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) represents a clinical challenge. pharmacological options are often attempted after a period of watchful waiting (8–12 weeks). monoaminergic antidepressant drugs have shown only modest or null clinical benefits, maybe because the etiology of depressive symptoms in ad patients is fundamentally different from that of nondemented subjects.Areas covered: The following article looks at the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline, which is one of the most frequently studied antidepressant medications in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). It also discusses many other pharmacological approaches that have proven to be inadequate (antipsychotics, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, anticonvulsants, hormone replacement therapy) and new drug classes (mainly affecting glutamate transmission) that are being studied for treating depression in AD. It also gives discussion to the phase II RCT on the alternat...