Trial reportJournal of affective disorders2024
Effects of open-label transdermal nicotine antidepressant augmentation on affective symptoms and executive function in late-life depression.
Trial report in Journal of affective disorders, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04433767 (Nicotinic Modulation of the Cognitive Control System in Late-life Depression), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Nicotinic Modulation of the Cognitive Control System in Late-life Depression
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- New-generation nicotine delivery products require new approaches to research.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLate-life depression (LLD) is characterized by a poor response to antidepressant medications and diminished cognitive performance, particularly in executive functioning. There is currently no accepted pharmacotherapy for LLD that effectively treats both mood and cognitive symptoms. This study investigated whether transdermal nicotine augmentation of standard antidepressant medications benefitted mood and cognitive symptoms in LLD.
methodsNonsmoking participants aged 60 years or older with unremitted LLD on stable SSRI or SNRI medications (N = 29) received transdermal nicotine patches up to a 21 mg daily dose over 12 weeks. Clinical measures assessed depression severity, secondary affective symptoms, and cognitive performance. Nicotine metabolite concentrations were obtained from blood samples.
resultsDepression severity significantly decreased over the trial, with a 76 % response rate and 59 % remission rate. Change in depression severity was positively associated with nicotine exposure. Participants also exhibited improvement in self-reported affective symptoms (apathy, insomnia, rumination, and generalized anxiety symptoms), negativity bias, and disability. Executive function test performance significantly improved, specifically in measures of cognitive control, as did subjective cognitive performance. Adverse events were generally mild, with 75 % of the sample tolerating the maximum dose.
conclusionThe current study extends our previous pilot open-label trial in LLD, supporting feasibility and tolerability of transdermal nicotine patches as antidepressant augmentation. Although preliminary, this open-label study supports the potential benefit of transdermal nicotine patches for both mood and cognitive symptoms of LLD. Further research, including definitive randomized, blinded trials, is warranted to confirm these findings and explore long-term risk and benefit.
trial registrationThe study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04433767).
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