[update] Scientific rationale: Dementia is a common and increasing disease in old age, resulting in dependency of care and thus in high societal costs. Despite a need for treatment and preventive measures – until now – there is no cure, and upcoming new therapies may not be available to all affected persons with dementia. As an alternative or add-on, it may be a promising strategy to use drugs already approved for other diseases and also having beneficial effects on dementia.
Antidepressants might be such drugs that are also effective and well-tolerated in the elderly. Some studies, using data from large German and US databases, suggest that long-term intake of antidepressants (i.e. for several years) may even help to slow down the disease course or might reduce the risk of developing dementia later on. However, more research is needed to understand these potential effects.
Aims: With long-term data from the UK Biobank, this project aims at (1) confirming the effects of different antidepressant drug classes on dementia prevention in a third large population, (2) identifying single candidate antidepressants for further research, (3) collecting more information on effective treatment durations, and (4) exploring effects of different dosing of antidepressants.
Project duration: Data analysis, including publication in a scientific journal, will take up to 36 months.
Public health impact: Findings of this project will help to better understand how certain antidepressants might influence the development of dementia, how long treatment should be continued and how it should be dosed to reach these effects. This may bear important treatment implications and might help to facilitate further research and/or even approval of specific antidepressants as a secondary preventive treatment strategy for dementia.
