Exploring the association between antidepressants, progression and mortality in Huntington’s disease
Duncan McLauchlan, Cheney Drew, Peter Holmans, Anne Rosser · 2026
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Description
McLauchlan and colleagues ask whether antidepressants help or harm people with Huntington's disease. Their 2026 paper uses ENROLL-HD, a global cohort of 25,550 participants, to untangle a classic problem: the symptoms that trigger a prescription might themselves mark faster disease. The team first mapped why antidepressants are started, then compared starters with non-starters using propensity weighting.
Depression and anxiety accounted for over 80 percent of prescriptions. Episodes of these symptoms were themselves tied to faster progression and a 1.5-fold mortality hazard. Yet among 1,877 people with new symptoms, the 194 who started an antidepressant declined more slowly. Their yearly score worsened by 0.53 points against 0.89 in non-starters. Their mortality hazard dropped by over 60 percent. Drug classes differed, with tricyclics linked to lower suicide and non-suicide deaths alike.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Duncan McLauchlan, Cheney Drew, Peter Holmans, Anne Rosser |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 32 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |