Executive Dysfunction and the Course of Geriatric Depression

Executive dysfunction increases the risk for poor response of geriatric depression to citalopram. Because executive functions require frontostriatal-limbic integrity, this observation provides the rationale for investigation of the role of specific frontostriatal-limbic pathways in perpetuating geriatric depression. Depressed elderly patients with executive dysfunction require vigilant clinical attention because they might be at risk to fail treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressant.