Neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia such as depression and apathy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are associated with a lower quality of life.

We aimed to determine the efficacy of two antidepressants and one antipathy drug in the treatment of depression and apathy in AD patients.

In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of sertraline (n = 11; average dose = 31.8 mg), escitalopram (n = 13; average dose = 7.3 mg), and nicergoline (n = 9; average dose = 14.5 mg) in treating depression and apathy over a period of 3 months (M).The 33 patients with AD demonstrated high Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (>5) or a high Apathy Scale (AS) (>16) scores.

The patients receiving escitalopram treatment showed a significant improvement in GDS score from baseline (8.2±3.5) to 3 M (5.7±2.6, p = 0.04), and the patients receiving sertraline treatment showed a significant improvement in AS score from baseline (20.8±5.2) to 3 M (16.8±6.1, p = 0.05); however, no significant changes were noted in patients receiving nicergoline.

These results provide novel information on the efficacy of sertraline and escitalopram in the treatment of apathy and depression, respectively, in patients with AD.