LAUSR

Experts’ summary: Duan et al [1] used Medicare data to study the association between tamsulosin and the risk of dementia. Men ( 65 yr) taking tamsulosin (n = 253 136) were matched at a 1:1 ratio to six comparison cohorts (no medication n = 180 926, doxazosin n = 28 581, terazosin n = 23 858, alfuzosin n = 17 934, dutasteride n = 34 027, finasteride n = 38 767). Assessment began following the first filling of prescriptions for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) medications to identify incident dementia according to ICD-9 diagnosis codes. The median follow-up for all cohorts was 19.8 mo. The risk of dementia was significantly higher in the tamsulosin cohort than in the no-medication cohort (hazard ratio [HR] 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.21) and in each of the alternative BPH-medication cohorts (doxazosin: HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.12–1.28; terazosin: HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.04–1.19; alfuzosin: HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.03–1.22; dutasteride: HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.19–1.34; finasteride: HR 1.13, 95% CI 1.07–1.19). The significance of these findings persisted in sensitivity analyses. These data suggest that use of tamsulosin may be associated with a diagnosis of dementia among older men with BPH.