Elderly patients with depression treated with Cymbalta (duloxetine hydrochloride), 60 mg once daily, had twice as much improvement in verbal learning and recalling information than those given a sugar pill, according to new research presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
By the end of the eight-week study, Cymbalta-treated patients demonstrated significantly greater improvement in cognition when compared to patients treated with a sugar pill (mean change 1.95 vs. .76). Additionally, 27.4 percent of Cymbalta-treated patients were virtually free of their depressive symptoms, a rate nearly double that seen with a sugar pill (14.7 percent). Significant improvements in depressive symptoms in Cymbalta-treated patients were also seen as early as one week.
Impairment of cognitive functioning is a bigger issue among the elderly with depression than younger adults, one analysis suggests. It is not uncommon for these patients to have short-term memory issues, like forgetting where they placed their keys, or to experience a delay in recalling information.