People with dementia are at increased risk of psychiatric disorders before clinical identification of the disease.
- The risk of psychiatric disorders began to increase three years before the diagnosis of dementia and peaked the week after the disease was identified.
- During the year preceding diagnosis, the team noted a marked increase in the consumption of psychotropic medications.
- Antidepressant consumption was consistently higher in patients affected by dementia than in control volunteers, and the difference increased from two years before dementia diagnosis (15.9% versus 7.9%).
What are the temporal trends in risk of psychiatric disorders before and after dementia diagnosis, compared to adults without cognitive decline? This is the question that Spanish and Swedish researchers asked themselves. To answer this, they carried out a study, the results of which were published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Dementia: risk of psychiatric disorders began to increase three years before diagnosis
To carry out their work, the scientists examined temporal patterns of risk for psychiatric disorders (including depression, anxiety, stress-related disorders, substance use disorders, sleep disorders and psychotic disorders) in patients with dementia before, at the time of and after obtaining a diagnosis. For their analysis, they reviewed data from 796,505 people, obtained from six registers between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2017.
The authors found that the risk of psychiatric disorders was systematically higher in participants affected by dementia than in so-called “control” volunteers. “It began to increase three years before diagnosis, peaked during the week following diagnosis, and declined rapidly thereafter. A reduction in risk compared to controls was observed beginning five years after diagnosis. diagnostic”, can we read in the research.
Antidepressants: higher consumption among adults with dementia
According to the team, the results were similar for Alzheimer’s disease, mixed dementia, vascular dementia and dementia not otherwise specified. Among people with dementia, significantly higher consumption of psychotropic medications was observed in the year before dementia diagnosis and peaked six months after diagnosis.
In detail, the consumption of antidepressants was always higher in patients suffering from dementia than in control participants. The difference increased from two years before dementia diagnosis, peaked around six months after diagnosis, then slowly decreased from three years after disease identification, but remained higher than in control patients five years after diagnosis.
“These findings suggest that managing psychiatric comorbidities is crucial for people with dementia at all stages of the disease,” the researchers concluded.
