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Review
. 2018 Aug 13:14:2047-2055.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S172933. eCollection 2018.

Schizophrenia and risk of dementia: a meta-analysis study

Laisheng Cai  1 , Jingwei Huang  1
Affiliations
Review

Schizophrenia and risk of dementia: a meta-analysis study

Laisheng Cai et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that schizophrenia may be associated with an increased risk of dementia, but results from prior studies have been inconsistent. This study aimed to estimate the relationship between schizophrenia and incident dementia using a quantitative meta-analysis.

Methods: Several databases were used to gather relevant information, including PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, with the publication date of articles limited up to December 23, 2017. All studies reported a multivariate-adjusted estimate, represented as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), for the association between schizophrenia and risk of dementia incidence. Pooled RRs were calculated using a random-effects model.

Results: Six studies met our inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis, which included 206,694 cases of dementia and 5,063,316 participants. All individuals were without dementia at baseline. Overall, the quantitative meta-analysis suggested that subjects with schizophrenia were associated with a significantly greater risk of dementia incidence (RR 2.29; 95% CI 1.35-3.88) than those without.

Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis indicate that individuals with schizophrenia may have an increased risk for the development of dementia. Future studies should explore whether schizophrenia is a modifiable risk factor for dementia.

Keywords: dementia; meta-analysis; schizophrenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart depicting the literature search and study selection. Notes: After removal of duplicates, reviews, and quality control, six papers were suitable for analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Meta-analysis of the association between schizophrenia and dementia incidence. The random-effects model was used. There was a highly significant difference between the two groups (P=0.002). Note: Weights are from random effects analysis. Abbreviation: RR, relative risk.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Analyses of subgroups relating schizophrenia to dementia. The random-effects model was applied. Abbreviation: RR, relative risk.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Sensitivity analyses results when the given named study was omitted.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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