Mood Disorders in Elderly Population: Neurostimulative Treatment Possibilities

Oded      Rosenberg; Netta      Shoenfeld; Moshe      Kotler; Pinhas   N.   Dannon

doi:10.2174/157488909788453013

Abstract

Treatment of mood disorders is one of the most challenging territories in elderly. Effectiveness of different treatment strategies could be related to age, sex and physical conditions. The side effect profile in this population also affects pharmacological interventions. Our review includes the neurostimulative treatment strategies in elderly. However, possible treatment strategies such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) were less studied in elderly. ECT was found to be an effective treatment procedure in mood disorders. Few double-blind sham controlled studies were conducted and demonstrated effectiveness of TMS. DBS has lack of double-blind studies. ECT seems to be the golden standard for the treatment resistant elderly patients, yet side effect profile of ECT in elderly will be discussed. Double – blind sham controlled studies with larger samples are necessary to confirm preliminary results with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), magnetic seizure therapy (MST) and VNS, DBS.

Keywords: Elderly, ECT, TMS, DBS, VNS, mood disorders, depression, affective disorders