People with dementia do not only lose their memories – they often fight depression, with specialists who value up to half of patients experience this side effect.
But experts are now raising doubts about whether treatments they intend to help are doing more harm than good, as new research suggests that some prescribed antidepressants can usually speed up cognitive decline.
Symptoms Discovering symptoms can worsen cognitive decline and damage the quality of life, so it is important to treat them,-said Sara Garcia-Ptacek, researcher at the Karolinska Institute and an author of the study. Results Our results can help doctors and other health care professionals choose antidepressants who are best adapted for patients with dementia.â €
The Swedish observational study followed more than 18,700 patients with dementia from 2007 to 2018. For an average four years tracking, about 23% described a new antidepressant.
Selective serotonin recovery inhibitors (SSRI), which increase chemical serotonin levels “feel good” in the brain, account for 65% of those recipes.
“The highest scattered Doses of SSRIs were accompanied by a higher risk of severe dementia, fractures and mortality of all the causes,” the researchers wrote. Men in antidepressants showed faster rates of cognitive decline than women.
The study also revealed the main differences between different SSRIs: Escitalopram (Lexpro’s name) was associated with the fastest cognitive decline, followed by Citalopram (Celexa) and Serraline (Zoloft).
Swedish researchers pointed out that it is still unclear whether the cognitive decline observed was due to antidepressants or other factors, such as depressive symptoms themselves.
Experts who are not involved in the study sought caution in interpreting findings, warning that more research is needed to fully understand the risks and benefits of antidepressants for patients with dementia.
“There are some important restrictions to consider,” said Dr. Prasad Nishtala, a researcher at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. “One major issue is that the severity of depression in patients with dementia was not fully calculated, which has the potential to prejudice the results.”
Dr. Richard Isaacson, a preventive neurologist and director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, told CNN that while doctors will probably not change their treatment plans based on this study, public response may pose a problem.
â € as a clinic, the worrying thing is that a patient’s loved one will hear about this study and mean, â € yee if we use an antidepressant, my mother will drop faster, â â € said he.
â € œWhat happens to the quality of life of the patient? Can they become more anxious and be a risk of keeping home? “Ask Isaacson.” Can they become more attracted, limited by society and apathetic? Most likely.â €
Research suggests that almost 10% of US adults aged 65 and older are dementia, while 22% others have mild cognitive damage.
Along with memory loss, many people with dementia also undergo significant changes in mood and behavior.
Antidepressants are usually prescribed to help manage these symptoms, with a 2020 study for more 737,000 people finding that nearly half of them took these medicines. However, experts say that research on their therapeutic benefit remains limited.
A 2019 compilation found that antidepressants are often ineffective in the treatment of depression in people with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia in the elderly.
These medicines are often used often to manage anxiety in patients with dementia, though their value in the area is in the same way unclear.
In a 2025 analysis of the seven rehearsals, five of them found no improvement of anxiety after antidepressants or without change when compared to a placebo. Only two studies showed a benefit of the cytalopram, but further research is needed to confirm its effectiveness.
The Swedish research team said its findings could help doctors make more informed treatment decisions. They want to investigate if certain groups of patients, such as people with specific types of dementia or biomarkers, respond better or worse to different antidepressants.
“The goal is to find these subgroups to create more individualized care,” Garcia-Ptacek said.
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