Antihypertensive drugs and relevant cardiovascular pharmacotherapies and the risk of incident dementia in patients with atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and dementia are predominant among the elderly; patients with AF have an increased dementia risk. We aimed to study if prescribed antihypertensive drugs and cardiovascular pharmacotherapies are associated with a lower relative risk of dementia.

METHODS

All included patients were ≥45 years and diagnosed with AF in primary care; 12,096 (6580 men and 5516 women) in Sweden. We excluded patients with a dementia diagnosis before onset of AF. Cox regression was used (hazard ratios, HRs, and 95% confidence interval, CI) with adjustments for sex, age, socioeconomic factors and co-morbidities.

RESULTS

Incident dementia occurred in 750 patients (6.2%) during an average of 5.6 years of follow-up (a total of 69,214 person-years). Patients prescribed thiazides HR 0.81 (95% CI 0.66-0.99) and warfarin HR 0.78 (95% CI 0.66-0.92) had a lower risk of dementia than patients without these drugs. The use of 1-4 of the different antihypertensive drug classes (thiazides, beta blocker, vessel active calcium channel blockers or renin angiotensin aldosterone (RAAS) blockers) were associated with a reduction of incident dementia; HR 0.80 (95% CI 0.64-1.00) for one to two drugs, and HR 0.63 (95% CI 0.46-0.84) for three or four drugs, versus having no prescribed antihypertensive drugs. The combination of a RAAS-blocker and a thiazide was significant, HR 0.70 (95% CI 0.53-0.92), versus not having that particular combination prescribed, while RAAS-blockers or thiazides separately were not significant.

CONCLUSION

Prescribed antihypertensive drugs, including thiazide/RAAS-blocker combination therapy and use of warfarin, were associated with a decreased incidence of dementia.