Antidepressant use among persons with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis: a nationwide register-based study in Finland

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate antidepressant use in a nationwide cohort of persons with incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2000–2007 in Finland.

Method: Register data from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland were used to evaluate antidepressant use in ≥ 50-year-old incident RA patients (n = 10 356) and the same-age general population.

Results: Of the RA patients, 10.0% (n = 1034) had used antidepressants during the year preceding RA diagnosis. The cumulative incidence of antidepressant initiations after RA diagnosis was 11.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) 10.0–12.9] for men and 16.2% (95% CI 14.9–17.5) for women at the end of follow-up (mean 4.4 years). Female gender [age-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.39, 95% CI 1.21–1.60] and increasing number of comorbidities (p for linearity < 0.001) predicted antidepressant initiations. In the last follow-up year, antidepressant use was at the same level among men with RA [prevalence rate ratio (PRR) 0.93, 95% CI 0.82–1.06] but lower among women (PRR 0.89, 95% CI 0.83–0.95) when compared to the general population.

Conclusions: Antidepressant initiations in early RA were associated with female gender and comorbidity. Although depression is stated to be a sizeable problem in RA, the prevalence of antidepressant use did not exceed the population level.