Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease Depression
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease Depression
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 131
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to learn whether treating individuals with Alzheimer's disease and depression with the anti-depressant medication sertraline (Zoloft) is helpful to people with Alzheimer's disease and to their families and caregivers.

Detailed description:
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment with sertraline (range 25-125 mg per day) or identical placebo for 24 weeks. There are 8 scheduled in-person visits in the 24 weeks. Visits include neuropsychological testing. Caregivers are asked to are the patient on a Daily Affect Diary for 6 weeks during the study period. Telephone followup is done at weeks 36 and 48. Both groups receive caregiver support/education.

Arms:
arm 1: Participants will receive sertraline at a target dose of 100mg daily. arm 2: Participants will receive placebo matched to sertraline

Interventions: intervention 1: Sertraline (Zoloft) intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Sertraline: range of 25 to 125 mg per day for 24 weeks intervention 2: Placebo designed to mimic sertraline taken daily for 24 weeks

Protocol document: