title: Antidepressant use among persons with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis: a nationwide register-based study in Finland.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Assessment of Pharmacotherapies, Finnish Medicines Agency , Kuopio , Finland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jyrkkä
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kautiainen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koponen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Puolakka
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Virta
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pohjolainen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lönnroos
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents