Key result
Depressogenic medications are linked to non-major depressive disorder rather than MDD in the elderly.
Why the study?
To investigate whether drugs classified as depressogenic contribute to depression and whether differences exist between major depressive disorder and non-major depressive disorder.
Does depressogenic medication contribute differently to major depressive disorder (MDD) versus non-MDD in the elderly?
Does depressogenic medication contribute differently to major depressive disorder (MDD) versus non-MDD in the elderly?
Drug-associated depression in the elderly is more likely to present as non-major depressive disorder rather than MDD.
May warrant screening for non-MDD rather than MDD in elderly on depressogenic medication; hypothesis-generating for distinct entities.
In this pilot study we investigate whether the heterogeneous variety of drugs classified in our previous work as depressogenic contributes to the occurrence of depression and whether there are differences in this contribution between major depressive disorder (MDD) and non-MDD. The study was performed in a small sample (N = 96) of community-dwelling elderly, population-based and weighed for the distribution of age, gender and prevalence of depressive symptoms. Other aetiological aspects of depression, such as age, female gender, cerebral deterioration, a previous history of mental disorder or a family history of mental disorder, were controlled for. When subjects with a MDD were separated from the other depressed subjects, all associations with medication became stronger in MDD, except for the use of the depressogenic medication, which was less frequent in MDD. This contrast only reached the level of significance after correcting for the other aetiological contributions. In MDD, the use of depressogenic medication may play an aetiological role but other factors seem more relevant. We found a significant association between depressogenic medication and non-MDD; this strengthens our suspicion that DAD is not MDD. DAD, especially in the elderly population, may (often) not be a MDD but a non-MDD with an atypical presentation.
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Dhondt et al. (1996) studied this question. Use of depressogenic medication was significantly associated with non-major depressive disorder, supporting that drug-associated depression differs from major depressive disorder in the elderly.
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