Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38970052›Full record

ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2024

Prescription medication use in the 10 years prior to diagnosis of young onset Alzheimer's disease: a nationwide nested case-control study.

Line Damsgaard, Janet Janbek, Thomas Munk Laursen, Karsten Vestergaard, Hanne Gottrup, Christina Jensen-Dahm, Gunhild Waldemar

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Real-world prediction of early-onset dementia by health record data: A multi-center machine learning study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Line DamsgaardDanish Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. line.damsgaard@regionh.dk.
Janet JanbekDanish Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Thomas Munk LaursenNational Centre for Register-based Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Karsten VestergaardDementia Clinic, Department of Neurology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
Hanne GottrupDementia Clinic, Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
Christina Jensen-DahmDanish Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Gunhild WaldemarDanish Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPatients with young onset Alzheimer's disease (YOAD) face long diagnostic delays. Prescription medication use may provide insights into early signs and symptoms, which may help facilitate timely diagnosis.

methodsIn a register-based nested case-control study, we examined medication use for everyone diagnosed with YOAD in a Danish memory clinic during 2016-2020 compared to cognitively healthy controls. Prescription medication use were grouped into 13 overall categories (alimentary tract and metabolism, blood and blood forming organs, cardiovascular system, dermatologicals, genitourinary system and sex hormones, systemic hormonal preparations, antiinfectives for systemic use, antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents, musculo-skeletal system, nervous system, antiparasitic products, respiratory system, and sensory organs). Further stratifications were done for predetermined subcategories with a use-prevalence of at least 5% in the study population. Conditional logistic regression produced odds ratios, which given the use of incidence-density matching is interpretable as incidence rate ratios (IRRs). The association between prescription medication use and subsequent YOAD diagnosis was examined in the entire 10-year study period and in three time-intervals.

resultsThe study included 1745 YOAD cases and 5235 controls. In the main analysis, several overall categories showed significant associations with YOAD in one or more time-intervals, namely blood and blood forming organs and nervous system. Prescription medication use in the nervous system category was increased for YOAD cases compared to controls already 10->5 years prior to diagnosis (IRR 1.17, 95% CI 1.05-1.31), increasing to 1.57 (95% CI 1.39-1.78) in the year preceding diagnosis. This was largely driven by antidepressant and antipsychotic use, and especially prominent for first-time users.

conclusionsIn this study, medication use in several categories was associated with YOAD. Onset of treatment-requiring psychiatric symptoms such as depression or psychosis in mid-life may serve as potential early indicators of YOAD.

Indexed as

Age of OnsetAlzheimer DiseaseAgedCase-Control StudiesDenmarkFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrescription DrugsRegistriesPrescription DrugsAlzheimer’s diseaseEarly warning signsEpidemiologyMedicationRegistry-basedYoung onset dementia

Identifiers

PMID38970052
PMCPMC11225233

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.