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. 2016 Mar 8;7(10):11687-95.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.7049.

Antidepressants in association with reducing risk of oral cancer occurrence: a nationwide population-based cohort and nested case-control studies

Chia-Min Chung  1   2 , Tzer-Min Kuo  1 , Shang-Lun Chiang  1   3 , Zhi-Hong Wang  1 , Chung-Chieh Hung  2   4 , Hsien-Yuan Lane  2   4 , Chiu-Shong Liu  5 , Ying-Chin Ko  1   2
Affiliations

Antidepressants in association with reducing risk of oral cancer occurrence: a nationwide population-based cohort and nested case-control studies

Chia-Min Chung et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Objectives: Several studies suggested that antidepressant use may increase or decrease the risk of cancer occurrence, depending on specific cancer types. The possible carcinogenic effect of antidepressants has received substantial attention; however, evidence remains inconclusive. Here we investigated associations between the use of antidepressants and occurrences of oral cancer (OC).

Methods: Two million samples were randomly collected from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan, which covers 98% of the total population (23 million). All patients from2000 to 2009 were followed up. We identified 5103 patients newly diagnosed with OC after antidepressants use in addition to 20,412 non-OC matched subjects and 95,452 unmatched non-OC subjects.

Results: In nested case control analysis, factors associating with OC, including age [OR = 1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-1.03) and male (OR = 5.30; 95% CI = 4.92-5.70) were independently associated with increased risk of OC. Based on the functions of antidepressants, antidepressants treatment medications were further classified to investigate risk of OC. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (OR = 0.61; 95% CI = 0.53-0.70) and tricyclic antidepressants (OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.52-0.63) were associated with reduced risk of OC. The risk of developing OC among subjects taking antidepressants was less than 26% [hazard ratio (HR) =0.74; 95% CI = 0.68-0.81] in prospective cohort study. The effect of a cumulative duration and dose was a significantly reduced risk of OC.

Conclusions: The association between antidepressant use and decreasing OC risk were demonstrated by both prospective and nested case-control studies.

Keywords: antidepressants; cohort; oral cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic of the samples selection process for the antidepressants prescription and oral cancer occurrence
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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