Antidepressant Treatment of Melancholia in Late Life
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT00000378. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Antidepressant Treatment of Melancholia in Late :Ife
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The purpose of this study is to compare the safety and effectiveness of a select serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI, sertraline) and a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA, nortriptyline) in outpatients over the age of 60 who have major depression. SSRIs are effective in the treatment of major depression. However, there is also evidence that SSRIs may be significantly less effective than TCAs for patients with late-life major depression with melancholia. Since SSRIs seem to be easier to take than TCAs and are more widely prescribed, it is important to determine which of these types of antidepressants works best to treat these patients. Patients will be assigned randomly to receive either sertraline (a SSRI) or nortriptyline (a TCA) for 12 weeks. Patients will be monitored for symptoms, side effects, and quality of life. If a patient responds to treatment, he/she will participate in a 6-month continuation phase in which he/she will continue to receive the same medication. An individual may be eligible for this study if he/she: Has unipolar major depression (with some exceptions) and is over 60 years old.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT00000378
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 4
- Enrollment
- 110 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 60 Years to 95 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jun 30, 1997
- Primary completion
- May 31, 2002
- Completion
- May 31, 2002
- Last update posted
- Oct 6, 2015
1997 – 2002
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1051 Riverside Drive | New York | New York | 10032 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT00000378, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Oct 6, 2015 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT00000378 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.