Combination treatment of citalopram with buspirone for elderly depressive patients

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and side effects of citalopram combined with buspirone in the treatment for elderly depressive patients. Methods Sixty-seven elderly patients who met the criteria of CCMD-3 for depression were randomly assigned to control group treated with citalopram and study group receiving combination treatment of citalopram with buspirone. HAMD-17,HAMA-17,CGI-GI and TESS were used to evaluate the efficacy and side effects. Results The scores of HAMD-17 in the two groups were significantly decreased 1 week after the treatment (P0.05).The scores of HAMD-17 4 weeks after treatment and the scores of HAMA-17 8 weeks after treatment in the study group were lower than those in the control group (P0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the scores of TESS (P0.05). Conclusions The effect of citalopram combined with buspirone is better than citalopram alone, and the side effects are lighter, therefore the combination is feasible in the treatment for elderly depressive patients.