International clinical psychopharmacology
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Int Clin Psychopharmacol · Nov 2011
Do continued antidepressants protect against dementia in patients with severe depressive disorder?
Studies on humans show that depressive disorder is associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive dysfunction, and animal studies suggest that antidepressants may have neuroprotective abilities. On the basis of these observations, it was hypothesized that treatment with antidepressants may decrease the risk of developing dementia in patients with depression. We investigated whether continued treatment with antidepressants is associated with a decreased rate of dementia in a population of patients discharged from psychiatric healthcare service with a diagnosis of depression. ⋯ In contrast, during periods of continued use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or newer nonselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the rate of dementia was not decreased, regardless of the subtype of dementia. It was concluded that continued long-term treatment with older antidepressants is associated with a reduced rate of dementia in patients treated in psychiatric healthcare settings, whereas continued treatment with other kinds of antidepressants is not. Methodological reasons for these findings cannot be excluded because of the nonrandomized nature of data.