Depression and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type: a role for moclobemide.

Depression is common in patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) and may precede the onset of the dementia; the underlying biological and neurotransmitter mechanisms may be common to both diseases, so far as norepinephrine lesions are concerned. The major routes of metabolism of amines in the brain utilize the monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzymes. Due to the consistent severity of norepinephrine lesions in the locus coeruleus of patients with pre-senile dementia or SDAT and the fact that MAO-A enzyme is the major metabolizing enzyme present in the locus coeruleus in man, the new specific, reversible MAO-A inhibitors may have a place in the treatment of depression associated with SDAT.