The high association of depression and dementia in the elderly has motivated to investigate the type of relationship that exists between them. The objective of this narrative review was to describe the relationship between depression and dementia, for which the Medline, Science Direct, Dialnet, Redalyc databases were reviewed between 2000 and 2021, with the verbal descriptors “dementia” AND “depression” AND “relationship” AND “older adult” OUT “caregiver depression” to locate the candidate documents and then select the final sample made up of 60 published articles, which were reviewed by three judges for selection. Seven explanations of the relationship between dementia and depression were identified in which depression is considered a risk factor for dementia, a prodrome, a consequence, among others. Likewise, there was evidence that, although all the hypotheses have scientific support, there are also indications of their refutability. The types of relationship with the greatest scientific support were “depression as a risk factor” and “as a prodrome of dementia”, although the limitations in the studies prevent clarifying the relationship between these entities. Longitudinal studies that review the history of depression are suggested as a useful methodology to determine the relationship between them.

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