Antidepressant and Risk of Dementia: Confounding by Indication

The meta-analysis by Chan et al1 highlighted the uncertain role of antidepressants in dementia prevention, which is pertinent considering that depression has been identified as a potentially modifiable risk factor of dementia in a recent Lancet Commission.2 By pooling the risk estimates from 4 longitudinal studies, Chan et al suggested that antidepressant use may be associated with a higher risk of dementia among patients with depression, and that future research is needed to investigate the benefit-risk ratio of antidepressant use in at-risk patients.