Karin Modig of the Karolinska Institutet and colleagues conducted a case-control study and found that taking common cardiovascular medications is associated with a reduced incidence of dementia. The analysis included 88,065 patients from national health registries who were diagnosed with dementia at age 70 or older between 2011 and 2016, as well as ten times more age- and gender-matched individuals without the diagnosis. Prescriptions for cardiac medications were tracked using prescription registers. The results were published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia.
It was found that long-term (five years or more) use of antihypertensives, diuretics, lipid-lowering drugs, and oral anticoagulants was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia: odds ratio (OR) was 0.75–0.91. However, with the use of antiplatelet agents, the risk was higher (OR 1.13–1.25). The greatest reduction in the risk of dementia was observed with long-term use of antihypertensive drugs in combination with a diuretic, lipid-lowering drug, or oral anticoagulant (OR 0.66–0.84).
