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Polypharmacy and late‐life depression often congregate in the geriatric population. The primary objective is to identify determinants of polypharmacy in patients with depression, and second to examine polypharmacy in relation to various clinical phenotypes of depression and its course.

A longitudinal observational study using data of the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older persons (NESDO) including 375 patients with depression 60 years and 132 non‐depressed comparisons. Linear and logistic regression were used to analyze both polypharmacy (dichotomous: ≥5 medications) and number of prescribed drugs (continuous) in relation to depression, various clinical phenotypes, and depression course.

Polypharmacy was more prevalent among patients with depression (46.9%) versus non‐depressed comparisons (19.7%). A lower level of education, lower cognitive …