Gastrointestinal medication use patterns and incident depressive symptoms among adults aged 50 years or older: a prospective multicohort study

Baseline and persistent gastrointestinal medication use in community-dwelling adults aged 50+ is linked to higher risk of incident depressive symptoms, with pooled adjusted HRs of 1.31 and 1.34.

• Why it matters: Depressive symptoms are a major cause of disability in later life, but prior evidence on gastrointestinal medication use and subsequent depression has been limited to single countries and cross-sectional snapshots.
• What they did: Using CHARLS, HRS, and SHARE, adults below cohort-specific depressive thresholds at baseline were followed for a median of 6–11 years; Cox models compared baseline use vs non-use and two-wave patterns (initiation, discontinuation, persistent use).
• The result: Across cohorts, initiation (HR 1.27) and discontinuation (HR 1.25) also showed elevated risk, while negative controls were null and psychiatric medications showed the expected strong association (HR 1.99), supporting routine affective screening in medication reviews.