[Therapy of dementia with antipsychotics and antidepressives]

In dementia depressive symptoms, anxiety, hallucinations and delusions often occur and are accompanied by unspecific behavioral changes. A targeted pharmacotherapy is complicated by the underlying cognitive impairment and physical comorbidities. The current review focusses on recent evidence on the use of antidepressives and antipsychotics for psychotic disturbances, agitation and depression in dementia and analyzes currently published randomized controlled clinical trials and meta-analyses. The evidence on the use of antipsychotics for different indications favors risperidone, with lower evidence levels for quetiapine and aripiprazole, whereas haloperidol should be avoided. Increased mortality and the risk of cerebrovascular events due to antipsychotics are of major concern. With respect to antidepressives, the benefit of antidepressive pharmacotherapy in dementia is critically discussed because of limited efficacy and increased side effects; however, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), such as citalopram and sertraline have demonstrated efficacy on neuropsychiatric behavioral symptoms in general. These conclusions on the risk-benefit ratio of antidepressives and antipsychotics in dementia are in accordance with the recommendations of the German Society of Neurology and German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGN/DGPPN) S3 guidelines on the treatment of dementia.