Depression is a psychiatric disorder frequently found in Parkinson's disease (MP), affecting
approximately 40-50% of patients and assuming the characteristics of major depression in 17%
of cases. Vortioxetine is a new antidepressant, which inaugurates the class of "multimodal"
antidepressants, able to exert modulation of serotonergic receptors, inhibit serotonin
reuptake, modulate other neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine
and histamine.
The primary endpoint of this study will be to verify safety and tolerability of vortioxetine
in the treatment of sustained depression in PD. Safety will be assessed through the recording
of treatment emergent adverse events (TEAE) and vital signs in each study visits and
laboratory tests, ECG, physical and neurological examination at baseline and End of study.
The non worsening of motor disability evaluated through Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating
Scale (UPDRS) will be the tolerability end point.
The secondary endpoint will be to demonstrate the efficacy on depression: efficacy measures
will include Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D-17), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI),
CGI-S and CGI-I.