A small proportion of people with dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms experience clinically significant worsening when antidepressants are discontinued
- 1King's College London, London, UK
- 2Alzheimer's Society, London, UK
- Correspondence to: Clive Ballard
Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, Wolfson Wing, Hodgkin Building, King's College London, Guy's Campus, London SE 1 1UL, UK; clive.ballard{at}kcl.ac.uk
Commentary on:
Context
Depression is common in dementia with prevalence over 20%,1 causing distress, reducing quality of life, exacerbating impairment, increasing mortality and increasing caregiver stress.2 Treating depression is a clinical priority to improve well-being, quality of life and function in people with dementia. Depression may also underpin other neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation.3 The overall evidence does not, however, suggest that antidepressants are an effective treatment for depression in Alzheimer's disease (AD),4–6 although there is preliminary evidence for potential benefits of some antidepressants …
