Bidirectional Association Between Depression and Rheumatoid Arthritis Save
A recent meta-analysis suggests a bidirectional association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and depression. Finding RA patients with depression yields an 80% increased mortality risk.
Anti-cytokine therapies represents a potential alternative for the treatment of depression.
Analysis of 11 cohort studies included 39,130 RA patients, 550,782 patients with depression and 7,802,230 controls.
RA patients had a 47% greater risk of incident depression compared to controls.
Depression patients had a 34% greater risk of developing RA, this was only significant in the ≥60 years old age group. RA patients with depression had an 80% increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to those without depression.
This bidirectional association between RA and depression may be more importan in the elderly. This remains a significant comorbidity which rheumatologists generally do no screen for.
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