Do antidepressants prevent transition to psychosis in individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR-P)? Systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Emerging meta-analytical evidence indicates that baseline exposure to antipsychotics in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P) is associated with a higher risk of an imminent transition to psychosis. Despite their tolerability profile and potential beneficial effects, baseline exposure to antidepressants (AD) in CHR-P has surprisingly received far less attention as a potential risk modulator for transition to psychosis. The current systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to fix such a knowledge gap.

METHODS

Systematic scrutiny of Medline and Cochrane library, performed up to 1 August 2021, searching for English-language studies on CHR-P reporting numeric data about the sample, the transition outcome at a predefined follow-up time and raw data on AD baseline exposure in relation to such outcome.

RESULTS

Of 1942 identified records, 16 studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. 26% of the participants were already exposed to AD at baseline; at the end of the follow-up 13.5% (95% CI 10.2-17.1%) of them ( = 448) transitioned to psychosis against 21.0% (18.9 to 23.3%) of non-AD exposed CHR-P ( = 1371). CHR-P participants who were already under AD treatment at baseline had a lower risk of transition than non-AD exposed CHR-P. The RR was 0.71 (95% CI 0.56-0.90) in the fixed-effects model ( = -2.79; = 0.005), and 0.78 (0.58-1.05) in the random-effects model ( = -1.77; = 0.096; tau-squared = 0.059). There was no relevant heterogeneity (Cochran's = 18.45; df = 15; = 0.239; = 18.7%).

CONCLUSIONS

Ongoing AD exposure at inception in CHR-P is associated to a reduced risk of transition to psychosis at follow up.