ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN THE USE OF SSRI MEDICATION IN OLDER ADULTS AND COGNITIVE DECLINE AND IMPAIRMENT

Previous research has indicated that depression is a risk factor for dementia. SinceSSRI medication is the most common treatment for depression, it is important todetermine if SSRIs are associated with reduced dementia and better cognitive outcomes.Using longitudinal data from the 2004-2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Studymerged with the 2005 Prescription Drug Study, we examined potential associationsbetween SSRI and TCA medication and cognitive impairment and cognitive decline. Thestudy population consisted of 1,775 older adults who participated in the PDS in 2005. Wefound that SSRIs were associated with significantly higher odds of cognitive impairmentafter two and ten years of follow-up (aOR=3.23, p=.0028; aOR=1.70, p=.0499), whileTCA use was not associated with higher odds of cognitive change in either direction atany point. In a linear mixed model, with a time by treatment group interaction term, wefound that overall, SSRI users were associated with a significant decline in cognitivescore after 10 years of follow-up (aβ=-1.23, p=.0033) when compared to non-SSRIparticipants. TCAs were not associated with cognitive change in either direction. Whenstratifying by depression status, depressed SSRI users were associated with asignificantly higher decrease in cognition score after 6 years of follow-up (aβ=-2.34,p=.0197) compared to depressed non-SSRI users, though this decrease did not remainsignificant after 8 and 10 years of follow-up. Depressed TCA users were associated witha significantly higher decline in scores after 4 and 8 years of follow-up (aβ=-4.80,p=.0116; aβ=-4.59, p=.0127) when compared to non-depressed TCA users. Non-vdepressed SSRI users were associated with a significant decline in cognitive score after10 years of follow-up (aβ=-1.13, p=.0207), while non-depressed TCA users were notassociated with cognitive change in either direction. Future research on this associationshould aim to further assess the association at varying symptoms of depression anddistinguish time of depression onset to clarify the association between bothantidepressants and depression with dementia.