By Sam Blanchard Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 12:51 BST, 11 June 2019 | Updated: 13:01 BST, 11 June 2019
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People taking antidepressants in middle or old age could have triple the risk of developing dementia, a study has found.
Antidepressants may damage or kill crucial nerve cells in the brain, researchers suggested as part of a study of more than 71,000 people.
Rates of dementia were found to be 3.4 times higher among people who took the depression drugs after the age of 50.
The findings should encourage people and doctors to weigh up the risks and benefits of antidepressant treatment, the researchers said.
But one expert warned scientists are increasingly turning to believe depression may actually be an early symptom of dementia and a consequence of years of changes in the brain, meaning treatment should not be avoided.
Researchers suggested antidepressant drugs may cause nerve damage or be toxic to healthy cells in the brain, but one expert told MailOnline scientists are increasingly believing depression could be an early sign of dementia (stock image)
Researchers from Israel, Sweden and New York studied a group of 71,515 real patients in Israel over the course of 10 years between 2002 and 2012.
All people in the study were over the age of 60 by 2012 and had not been diagnosed with dementia in 2002.
They were split into groups of those who had taken antidepressants during the decade (3,688 people) and those who hadn't (67,827).
In the antidepressant-taking group, 11 per cent of people developed dementia before the end of the study – a total of 407 people.
While in the group which didn't take the pills, that rate was just 2.6 per cent (1,769 people).
When the results were adjusted to make them fair, the dementia risk of people in the antidepressant group was 3.4 times higher.
The overall rate of dementia is around five to six per cent, meaning people have a one in 20 chance of getting it – but some groups are at higher risk than others.
'Our study results indicate that antidepressant exposure in old age may increase the risk of dementia,' said the researchers, led by Dr Stephen Levine of
