The Brown University Geriatric Psychopharmacology Update articles from April 2003

The Brown University Geriatric Psychopharmacology Update archives from April 2003

Prevention of depression in medically ill elderly: can theory be put into practice? (AAGP Conference Report).(American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry)
April 1, 2003... The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) recently held their annual meeting in Honolulu and as usual, many of the presentations focused on cutting edge new research in the geriatric psychiatry field. The goal of one particularly...

Research focuses on treating dementia, a variety of agents found useful. (New Research from the AAGP Meeting).
April 1, 2003... A number of presentations at this year's annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry addressed efforts to treat dementia in elderly patients. Risperidone reduces behavioral symptoms in dementia Researchers...

Quetiapine may raise carbamazepine levels, increased agitation and aggression seen in one patient. (Drug-Drug Interactions).
April 1, 2003... Although carbamazepine (Tegretol) is primarily used as an antiepileptic drug, it has more recently been used to treat disorders such as bipolar disorder, aggression and borderline personality disorder. (1) Carbamazepine is well known to enhance...

Study finds need for treatment among older Americans will triple by 2020.(forecast for substance abuse treatment)
April 1, 2003... The need for substance abuse treatment among older Americans is expected to nearly triple in 2020 as the baby-boom population carries its alcohol and drug abuse into older ages, according to a study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental...

Galantamine may improve cognition in schizophrenia. (Clinical Notes).
April 1, 2003... As part of an ongoing study of patients with schizophrenia who smoke, 24 subjects received galantamine (Reminyl) in addition to risperidone (Risperdal) treatment. The patients were 18 to 60 years old with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenia and...

Rivastigmine helpful in behavioral disturbances. (Clinical Notes).
April 1, 2003... Researchers conducted a post-hoc analysis of three placebo-controlled, six-month trials of rivastigmine (Exelon) to examine its efficacy in treating behavioral symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Rivastigmine inhibits...

Galantamine shows long-term noncognitive benefits. (Clinical Notes).
April 1, 2003... A group of researchers explored the long-term benefits of galantamine (Reminyl) in 699 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study consisted of a six-and-a-half month double-blind phase followed by a 12-month open-label...

Novel drug candidate reduces [beta]-amyloid in animals. (News Updates).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... D-Pharm recently announced results from two studies demonstrating that the novel drug candidate DP-109 reduces [beta]-amyloid plaque in both in vitro and in vivo models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the first study, DP109 was found to...

Study: no interaction between memantine and donepezil. (News Updates).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Forest Laboratories recently announce the results or a study demonstrating no pharmacokinetic drug interactions between memantine and donepezil (Aricept). Donepezil is an aoetylcholinesteraseinhibitor(AChEI) approved by the FDA for the...

Lithium may help treat Alzheimer's disease. (News Updates).
April 1, 2003... In research recently published in Neuroscience, lithium was found to stimulate the in vitro growth of stem cells, causing them to multiply faster. Researchers say this may mean that lithium could stimulate stem cells in the brain to produce new...

Sertraline approved for social anxiety disorder. (News Updates).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Pfizer announced recently that the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline (Zoloft) was approved by the FDA for the acute and long-term treatment of social anxiety disorder. Sertraline is the first SSRI to be approved for this...

Clomipramine (generic)~Anafranil (brand). (Your Medication Information).
April 1, 2003... Classification: Tricyclic antidepressant. Common Usage: Clomipramine is indicated for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It is also sometimes used to treat other disorders such as depression, panic disorder, neurogenic...