The relationship between syncope, depression and anti-depressant use in older adults

BACKGROUND syncope is a common problem which increases in older age groups. In syncope clinics, patients who are depressed have higher rates of unexplained syncope and higher rates of recurrent syncope. OBJECTIVES : we aim to examine the rates of depression in older patients reporting syncope and the effect of anti-depressants (ADs) on the rates of syncope. DESIGN : epidemiological, point-prevalence study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS : data came from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, which includes 8,175 adults aged 50 and older, living in the community in Ireland. MEASUREMENTS : the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale was used to assess levels of depression. Multinomial regression was used to analyse the data with a P-value of