Antidepressant use and risk of hip fractures among community‐dwelling persons with and without Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVE: To study whether antidepressant use is associated with an increased risk of hip fracture among community-dwelling persons with and without Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to compare the risk according to duration of use and between antidepressant groups. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study, including 50,491 persons with AD (mean age 80) and 100,982 comparison persons without AD from Finnish register-based MEDALZ cohort. Antidepressant use was compared with nonuse with Cox proportional hazard models. Incident users were identified with a one year washout period from Prescription register data. Main outcome was hospitalization due to hip fracture. RESULTS: During antidepressant use, the age-adjusted rate of hip fractures per 100 person-years was 3.01 (95% CI 2.75-3.34) among persons with and 2.28 (1.94-2.61) among persons without AD. Antidepressant use was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture among persons with and without AD (adjusted HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.45-1.80 and 2.71, 2.35-3.14, respectively) compared with nonuse. The risk was most prominent in the beginning of use and was elevated even up to 4 years. The risk was increased with all of the most frequently used antidepressants. CONCLUSION: Antidepressant use is associated with an increased risk of hip fracture among older persons.