Antidepressant Use May Speed Up Cognitive Decline In Those With Dementia

People with dementia who are taking antidepressants have a quicker decline in cognitive abilities compared to people with a similar baseline degree of dementia who do not take antidepressants. According to a cohort study using Swedish data, the average annual decline was a decrease of 0.30 points on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. However, the degree of decline varied by the type of antidepressant, ranging from 0.19 points per year for people taking mirtazapine, 0.25 points per year for people taking sertraline, 0.41 points per year for people taking citalopram, to 0.76 points . . .