Risk of psychiatric disorders in patients with psoriasis prescribed acitretin versus disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: a nationwide matched cohort study

Background: Acitretin has been linked to the development of psychiatric disturbance. Objectives: To assess the psychiatric hazards in patients with psoriasis prescribed acitretin compared with those prescribed disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods: This is a nationwide matched cohort study. From Taiwan ’s National Health Insurance Research Database, Adult patients with psoriasis between 1997 and 2013 were screened. Patients prescribed acitretin for at least 30 days per year on average (acitretin cohort) were matched 1:2 with those prescribed DMARDs for at least 30 days per year on average (refer ence cohort), by means of age, gender, and psoriasis duration. Patients prescribed medication of the corresponding cohort for more than 7 days during the observation period were excluded. Cumulative incidences of psychiatric disorders in both cohorts were plotted with the Kaplan-Meier method. The mo dified Cox regression models were constructed to estimate hazard ratios (HRs). Results: In total, 1,152 and 2,304 patients in the acitretin and the reference cohort, respectively, were included. The 4-year cumulative incidence of overall psychiatric disorders (19.62% vs. 12.06%; p
Source: Dermatology - Category: Dermatology Source Type: research