As explained earlier, the inflammatory processes have been shown to play a role in dementia.
Adults older than 50 years of age with
rheumatoid arthritis (RA), taking methotrexate (for more than 4 years) was
linked with a lower risk of a following dementia diagnosis, as elucidated from
this case-control study across multiple electronic health records (EHR)
databases. No such association was found when sulfasalazine was used.
As explained earlier, the
inflammatory processes have been shown to play a role in dementia. To
understand this role, the study investigators of this particular study choose 2
anti-inflammatory drugs i.e. methotrexate and sulfasalazine to examination
their association with dementia risk.
This is a multi-national multi-database case-control study with patients over 50 years old with RA (486 dementia cases; 641 controls), recognized from EHR in the Spain, UK, Denmark and the Netherlands. Conditional logistic regression models were used to study dementia risk.
Previous methotrexate use
was related with a lower risk of dementia (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52–0.98). Also,
methotrexate therapy for >4 years portrayed a lowest risk of dementia (odds
ratio 0.37, 95% CI 0.17–0.79). The use of Sulfasalazine was not related with
dementia.
To understand the risk of
dementia, there is a need of future studies to elucidate the relationship
between earlier methotrexate use and duration in addition to biological
treatments.
Alzheimer's Research & Therapy
Methotrexate and relative risk of dementia amongst patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a multi-national multi-database case-control study
Danielle Newby et al.
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