Primary care treatment of depression in the elderly: a double-blind, multi-centre study of flupenthixol ('Fluanxol') and sustained-release amitriptyline.

A multi-centre general practice study was carried out to compare flupenthixol and a sustained-release preparation of amitriptyline in the primary care treatment of depression in the elderly. Fifty-one clinically depressed patients, aged 65 years or over, were allocated at random to one of the two treatment groups in this 4-week double-blind, double-dummy study. On entry, patients received either a 0.5 mg flupenthixol tablet in the morning and a placebo capsule at night (25 patients) or a 25 mg sustained-release amitriptyline capsule at night and a placebo tablet in the morning (26 patients), but at the end of the first or second weeks the dosage could be doubled according to the assessed clinical need. Fourteen patients in each treatment group had their dosages doubled. Patient assessment was undertaken on study entry and after 1, 2 and 4 weeks of treatment using a 0 to 3 scale global assessment and the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale; side-effects were recorded on the UKU Scale. After 4-weeks' treatment, over 80% of patients in each group had improved and in the flupenthixol group there was additionally a noticeable and highly significant reduction in symptom severity after only 1 week of treatment. Patients treated with flupenthixol had fewer and milder side-effects.