Use of antidepressants in Parkinson's disease: A Swedish register-based study of over 1.5 million older people.
It has been suggested that depression in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is often unrecognized and undertreated. However, few previous studies have studied the use of antidepressants in a large sample of both home-dwelling and institutionalized elderly persons with PD. We aimed to study the use of antidepressants in older persons using anti-parkinson drugs (APD, used as a proxy for PD), stratified by residential setting.



We analyzed individual data on age, sex, residential setting and drug use in over 1.5 million older persons in the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register on 31th of December 2013.



Twenty-two percent of the home-dwellers and 50% of the institutionalized elderly persons with APD used antidepressants. Persons with APD had a higher probability of use of any antidepressant compared to persons without APD. A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) was the most commonly used antidepressants in both settings followed by mirtazapin.



The high use of antidepressants among older persons with APD warrants further studies on the quality of treatment of depression in PD.
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: Ylva.Haasum@ki.se.
Ylva
Y
Haasum
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Johan
J
Fastbom
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Kristina
K
Johnell
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012042:Registries; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
D000928:Antidepressive Agents
Anti-parkinson drugs; Antidepressants; Elderly; Parkinson's disease; Register-based research