[Efficacy of selected antidepressants in senile depressive disorders--the author's own research].

Apart from dementia, depressive disorders are the commonest psychiatric disorders of elderly people. The treatment of these patients encounters numerous limitations due to their susceptibility to undesirable effects. Therefore, new better drugs are being searched for, which would be as effective as tricyclic (TLPD) antidepressants. The purpose of the research was to assess the effectiveness of selected antidepressants in senile depressive disorders. 90 patients (76 women and 14 men), diagnosed with a depressive episode according to the ICD-10 criteria, were examined. The following scales were used: the MMSE, Hachinski, IADL, GDS, ADAS and GdeprS. The CGI scale was used to assess clinical improvement. The research showed that mianserin was as effective as the TLPD. Both the TLPD and mianserin proved to be more efficient than the SSRI.