Patients with dementia experience both cognitive and behavioral and psychological symptoms. Cognitive symptoms affect memory, language, judgment, planning, focus and other thought processes. The class of antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are proposed to affect the neurodegenerative process of dementia, with the potential to enhance cognition. In the September issue of Age and Ageing, Jones and colleagues published a review of 12 randomized, placebo-controlled studies conducted on patients with dementia examining cognitive outcomes, and found no benefit or harm from SSRIs on cognition, mood, agitation or ADLs.
Link to Medscape/Age Ageing article (access free with site registration) (9/2016)
