Journal
DEMENTIA AND GERIATRIC COGNITIVE DISORDERS
Volume 25, Issue 4, Pages 372-379Publisher
KARGER
DOI: 10.1159/000121334
Keywords
dementia; Alzheimer's disease; depression; antidepressant drugs
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Background: Although antidepressant drugs (ATD) are frequently prescribed to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), their effect on cognitive status has been only rarely assessed. Methods: The impact of depressive symptoms and ATD on cognitive status was retrospectively assessed in 72 older AD outpatients with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment, treated with cholinesterase inhibitors, over a 9-month follow-up. Results: Compared to subjects without baseline depressive symptoms, those with symptoms who were continuously treated with ATD had less cognitive decline; those never treated, or not continuously treated despite baseline symptoms, had an intermediate trend. Such a protective action of ATD was, at least in part, independent of their action on depressive symptoms. Conclusion: These observations suggest that ATD may reduce cognitive decline in depressed older AD patients. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.
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