Is antidepressant treatment associated with reduced cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease?

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.