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Antipsychotic Treatment Associated With Increased Mortality Risk in Patients With Dementia. A Registry-Based Observational Cohort Study

Schwertner, Emilia ; Secnik, Juraj ; Garcia-Ptacek, Sara ; Johansson, Björn ; Nagga, Katarina LU ; Eriksdotter, Maria ; Winblad, Bengt and Religa, Dorota (2019) In Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 20(3). p.2-329
Abstract

Objective: To assess all-cause mortality patients with dementia treated with typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs (APDs). Design: Registry-based cohort study. Setting and participants: A total of 58,412 patients diagnosed with dementia and registered in the Swedish Dementia Registry were included in the study. Of the study sample, 2526 of the patients were prescribed APDs. Of these, 602 patients were prescribed typical APDs and 1833 patients were prescribed atypical APDs. Ninety-one patients were prescribed both typical and atypical APDs. Measurements: All-cause mortality based on Swedish Cause of Death Register. Adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were calculated according to class of APDs (typical or atypical) prescribed. Final... (More)

Objective: To assess all-cause mortality patients with dementia treated with typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs (APDs). Design: Registry-based cohort study. Setting and participants: A total of 58,412 patients diagnosed with dementia and registered in the Swedish Dementia Registry were included in the study. Of the study sample, 2526 of the patients were prescribed APDs. Of these, 602 patients were prescribed typical APDs and 1833 patients were prescribed atypical APDs. Ninety-one patients were prescribed both typical and atypical APDs. Measurements: All-cause mortality based on Swedish Cause of Death Register. Adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were calculated according to class of APDs (typical or atypical) prescribed. Final models were adjusted for age at dementia diagnosis, sex, Charlson comorbidity index, living arrangement, and Mini-Mental State Examination. Results: In the adjusted models, use of APDs at the time of dementia diagnosis was associated with increased mortality risk in the total cohort (hazard ratio = 1.4; 95% confidence interval 1.3–1.5). After stratifying for dementia types, increased mortality risks associated with APDs were found in patients with Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia, unspecified dementia, and vascular dementia. Higher risk for mortality was found with typical APDs in patients with mixed and vascular dementia and with atypical APDs in patients with Alzheimer's disease, mixed, unspecified, and vascular dementia. Furthermore, in patients with Alzheimer's disease who had typical APDs, use lower risk of death emerged in comparison with patients with atypical APDs. Conclusions/Implications: Both the use of atypical and typical APDs increased the risk of death in patients with dementia even after adjusting for differences in basic characteristics between groups. Although we cannot rule out the influence of residual confounding, these results would seem to add to studies suggesting caution in APD prescription for patients with dementia.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Alzheimer, Antipsychotics, dementia, mixed dementia, mortality, vascular dementia
in
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
volume
20
issue
3
pages
2 - 329
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85062028520
  • pmid:30824220
ISSN
1525-8610
DOI
10.1016/j.jamda.2018.12.019
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ffce3533-6ef8-45d2-8f0f-665c2bd8d190
date added to LUP
2019-03-05 14:55:23
date last changed
2024-02-14 20:38:48
@article{ffce3533-6ef8-45d2-8f0f-665c2bd8d190,
  abstract     = {{<p>Objective: To assess all-cause mortality patients with dementia treated with typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs (APDs). Design: Registry-based cohort study. Setting and participants: A total of 58,412 patients diagnosed with dementia and registered in the Swedish Dementia Registry were included in the study. Of the study sample, 2526 of the patients were prescribed APDs. Of these, 602 patients were prescribed typical APDs and 1833 patients were prescribed atypical APDs. Ninety-one patients were prescribed both typical and atypical APDs. Measurements: All-cause mortality based on Swedish Cause of Death Register. Adjusted hazard ratios of mortality were calculated according to class of APDs (typical or atypical) prescribed. Final models were adjusted for age at dementia diagnosis, sex, Charlson comorbidity index, living arrangement, and Mini-Mental State Examination. Results: In the adjusted models, use of APDs at the time of dementia diagnosis was associated with increased mortality risk in the total cohort (hazard ratio = 1.4; 95% confidence interval 1.3–1.5). After stratifying for dementia types, increased mortality risks associated with APDs were found in patients with Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia, unspecified dementia, and vascular dementia. Higher risk for mortality was found with typical APDs in patients with mixed and vascular dementia and with atypical APDs in patients with Alzheimer's disease, mixed, unspecified, and vascular dementia. Furthermore, in patients with Alzheimer's disease who had typical APDs, use lower risk of death emerged in comparison with patients with atypical APDs. Conclusions/Implications: Both the use of atypical and typical APDs increased the risk of death in patients with dementia even after adjusting for differences in basic characteristics between groups. Although we cannot rule out the influence of residual confounding, these results would seem to add to studies suggesting caution in APD prescription for patients with dementia.</p>}},
  author       = {{Schwertner, Emilia and Secnik, Juraj and Garcia-Ptacek, Sara and Johansson, Björn and Nagga, Katarina and Eriksdotter, Maria and Winblad, Bengt and Religa, Dorota}},
  issn         = {{1525-8610}},
  keywords     = {{Alzheimer; Antipsychotics; dementia; mixed dementia; mortality; vascular dementia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{2--329}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of the American Medical Directors Association}},
  title        = {{Antipsychotic Treatment Associated With Increased Mortality Risk in Patients With Dementia. A Registry-Based Observational Cohort Study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2018.12.019}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jamda.2018.12.019}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}