Objective: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the first line of treatment for depression. Among the SSRIs, paroxetine has strong anticholinergic properties and may lead to increased risk of adverse cognitive outcomes among elderly patients. This study evaluated the comparative risk of dementia associated with use of paroxetine and other SSRIs among elderly nursing home patients.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study using propensity score matching was conducted with 2007-2010 Minimum Data Set-linked Medicare data. The study population included elderly nursing home patients with depression who were new users of SSRIs. Patients were followed for a maximum of two years after index SSRI use. The risk of dementia was modeled by using a robust Cox proportional hazards model to account for clustering within matched users of paroxetine and other SSRIs.
Results: The unmatched cohort included 19,952 new users of SSRIs; 1,898 used paroxetine, and 18,054 used other SSRIs. In the propensity-matched cohort of 3,796 patients, the unadjusted incidence of dementia was 7.5% for users of paroxetine and 8.6% for users of other SSRIs. There was no difference in the risk of dementia for users of paroxetine or other SSRIs. These study findings remained robust in multiple sensitivity analyses involving various measures of dementia.
Conclusions: Compared with use of other SSRIs, use of paroxetine was not associated with higher risk of dementia among elderly nursing home patients with depression. Future studies are needed to evaluate the impact of paroxetine on other cognition measures.