↓ Skip to main content

Management of Depression in Patients with Dementia: Is Pharmacological Treatment Justified?

Overview of attention for article published in Drugs & Aging, January 2017
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (71st percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

twitter
10 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
28 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
106 Mendeley
Title
Management of Depression in Patients with Dementia: Is Pharmacological Treatment Justified?
Published in
Drugs & Aging, January 2017
DOI 10.1007/s40266-016-0434-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Andrew H. Ford, Osvaldo P. Almeida

Abstract

Depression in the context of dementia is common and contributes to poorer outcomes in individuals and those who care for them. Non-pharmacological treatments are the preferred initial approach to managing these symptoms but data in support of these are scarce. There are a number of pharmacological treatment options available to clinicians but efficacy is uncertain and concern about potential side effects in an aging and vulnerable population needs to be taken into consideration. This review aims to provide a concise overview of pharmacological treatments for depression in dementia. Antidepressants are the mainstay of pharmacological treatment for clinically significant depression in the general population but evidence to support their use in dementia is mixed. Trials of antidepressants should generally be reserved for individuals with depression where the symptoms are distressing and surpass the threshold for major depression. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are effective in the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease but current evidence does not support their use to treat depressive symptoms in dementia. Similarly, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers have no proven efficacy for depression and the risk of adverse effects seems to outweigh any potential benefit. Pain can be a frequent problem in dementia and may have significant effects on behavior and mood. Preliminary evidence supports a role of adequate analgesia in improving mood in people with dementia.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 10 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 106 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Spain 1 <1%
Unknown 105 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 19 18%
Student > Master 16 15%
Researcher 11 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 8%
Other 7 7%
Other 14 13%
Unknown 30 28%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 27 25%
Nursing and Health Professions 13 12%
Psychology 12 11%
Neuroscience 7 7%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 5%
Other 12 11%
Unknown 30 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 August 2017.
All research outputs
#6,996,781
of 25,371,288 outputs
Outputs from Drugs & Aging
#485
of 1,293 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#120,158
of 423,357 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Drugs & Aging
#12
of 18 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,371,288 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,293 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 423,357 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 18 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.