Taipale H, et al. - The link between regular antiepileptic drug (AED) use and dementia was assessed, utilizing Finnish public health register and German health insurance data. A lag time of 2 years between AED use and dementia diagnosis was introduced to address potential protopathic bias. Individuals with dementia versus controls (persons without dementia) more frequently used regular AED. Regular use of AEDs versus no AED use was shown to be related to a significantly greater risk of incident dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). With higher exposure, a trend toward greater risk of dementia was also noted. In older persons, AEDs, especially those with known cognitive adverse effects, could contribute to incident dementia and AD.