Scientists from Northwell Health found that pre-COVID-19 psychotropic medication use is linked to a higher risk for dementia following hospitalization for COVID-19 (post-COVID dementia) in older adults.
In the study, the team examined the link between pre-COVID psychotropic medication use and one-year incidence of dementia in 1,755 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The patients were 65 years and older.
The researchers found that the one-year incidence rate of post-COVID dementia was 12.7 percent.
Pre-COVID psychotropic medications and delirium were strongly associated with a higher one-year incidence of post-COVID dementia.
When the analysis was restricted to 423 patients with at least one documented neurological or psychiatric diagnosis at the time of COVID-19 admission, the association between psychotropic medications and incident dementia remained robust.
The greatest associations with post-COVID dementia across different drug classes were seen for antipsychotics and mood stabilizers/anticonvulsants.
The team says this study is no way recommending people should stop taking antipsychotics, but simply that clinicians need to factor in a patient’s medication history while considering post-COVID aftereffects.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about diet that may reduce your risk of dementia, and this existing drug may help treat dementia.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about 5 steps to protect against Alzheimer’s and Dementia, and results showing vitamin D3 could help people fight COVID-19 and other infections.
The research is published in Frontiers in Medicine and was conducted by Yun Freudenberg-Hua et al.
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