Long-Term Use of Antidepressants Doesn ’t Increase Dementia Risk, Study Finds

While the long-term use of most antidepressants does not appear to increase the risk of dementia, long-term use of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine may, suggests astudy in theJournal of the American Geriatrics Society.Laura Heath, Ph.D., of the University of Washington and colleagues examined the health data of 3,059 older adults who were part of Kaiser Permanente Washington ’s Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, a longitudinal study tracking brain changes prior to the onset of dementia.The investigators used this longitudinal data to compare dementia rates in patients with cumulative antidepressant use, which was divided into four categories of medication exposure over the previous decade: none, low (1 to 90 days), medium (90 days to one year), high (1 to 3 years), and very high (3+ years). Antidepressants were also grouped into five categories: paroxetine, other SSRIs, serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors (SARIs), tricyclic antidepressants, and all other antidepressants.Heath and colleagues identified no association between antidepressant use and dementia risk for most groups of antidepressants, regardless of how much medication people took. In contrast, some patients with a history of paroxetine use (high and low use groups) were found to be at a statistically significant increased risk of dementia compared with those with no antidepressant use; patients in the medium and very high categories also showed higher risk, but it was not s...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: anticholinergic antidepressant dementia dementia risk paroxetine SSRIs trazodone Source Type: research