Anxiety/depression in elderly patients. A double-blind comparative study of fluphenazine/nortriptyline and promazine.

A double-blind study involving sixty-two patients, aged 65 years or over, treated for twenty-eight days, showed that fluphenazine 0-5 mg/nortriptyline 10 mg three times daily was superior to promazine 50 mg three times daily in relieving symptoms of anxiety and was associated with a lower incidence of side-effects. The results are discussed in the light of the nature of anxiety/depression syndromes in the elderly and it is suggested that since symptoms of anxiety in these disorders are often manifestations of an underlying depressive illness, the antidepressant effect of the nortriptyline may have enhanced the 'anxiolytic' advantage of fluphenazine/nortriptyline.