Drug class linked to lower dementia odds in older psychiatric patients
Older psychiatric patients starting a class of diabetes drugs had lower dementia odds than those not starting them—an odds ratio of 0.61, where 1 means equal odds.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of 112,725 people
- In the record:
- The 619th paper on SGLT2 inhibitors with results in people; 2,681 on record in all. Its result on all-cause dementia agrees with all 3 other findings on record.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
The 112,725 US Department of Veterans Affairs patients in this observational cohort study were 65 or older and had major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia spectrum disorders. None had a prior dementia diagnosis; 92.8% were men. The analysis compared people starting sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, a class of diabetes drugs, with those not starting them.
In total, 7,631 patients started the drugs for at least three months. Median follow-up was 3.3 years. Estimated five-year dementia risk was 1.6% among those starting the drugs and 2.9% among those not starting them. Dementia diagnoses came from health-record codes. A separate analysis of 105,963 patients linked starting the drugs to fewer psychiatric emergency department visits.
Why it matters
Mood and psychotic disorders carry increased dementia risk. The authors interpreted the results as support for a possible brain-protective role for this drug class in that higher-risk population.
Caveats
Patients who started the drugs may have differed in health or care from those who did not, despite statistical adjustments. Participants were 65 or older and mostly men; people with prior dementia or diagnosed personality disorders were excluded.
From the paper
- Participants
We identified a total of 112 725 patients who met our inclusion criteria and observation window for the all-cause dementia trial.
- Result
In the all-cause dementia trial, the OR was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.52-0.73) in the ITT analysis and 0.54 (95% CI, 0.40-0.73) in the PP analysis.
- Limitation
Among the study limitations is that, despite adjustment and the trial emulation design, residual confounding may persist from variables such as severity of psychiatric illness, baseline cognitive function, and differential exposure related to diabetes indications.
Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.
The paper
Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors and Dementia Risk in Patients With Psychiatric Disorders
Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research; VA Boston Healthcare System
JAMA Network Open, Jun 1, 2026, Open access
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