Abstract P190: Antihypertensive Monotherapy And Risk Of Depression Incidence

Abstract

Background: Recent theory suggests that antihypertensive medications may be useful as repurposed treatments for mood disorders, however, empirical evidence is inconsistent Objective: We aimed to assess the risk of depression incidence as indicated by first-ever prescription of antidepressant in patients newly exposed to antihypertensive monotherapy and whether there is a dose-response relationship. Method: This study enrolled 2406 new users of antihypertensive monotherapy aged between 18 and 80 years with no previous history of antidepressant prescriptions. The exposure period (EP) to antihypertensive medication was fixed at one year starting from the first date of antihypertensive prescription between Jan 2005 and Mar 2012 and extended up to 12 months. Follow-up commence after the EP until March 2013. To test for dose-response relationship the cumulative defined daily dose (cDDD) of antihypertensive during the EP were stratified into tertiles. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for depression incidence. Results: Among the five major classes of antihypertensive medications, calcium channel blocker (CCB) had the highest risk of developing depression after adjusting for covariates (HR = 1.40 95%CI 1.11,1.78) compared to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI). Angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) treatment showed higher risk of depression incidence with tertile 2(HR= 1.46, 95%CI 0.88,2.44) and tertile 3 (HR= 1.75, 95%CI 1.03,2.97) compared to tertile 1 of cDDD. Conclusion: Our findings confirmed previous evidence suggesting that CCB is associated with increased risk of depression incidence compared to ACEI. Risk of developing depression is also linked to ARB, though it might be dose dependent.