1. Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke Events in Methamphetamine Users
- Author
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Shu Yu Yang, Ming Chyi Huang, Ying-Yeh Chen, Shih Ku Lin, Kuan Yu Chen, Chian Jue Kuo, and Yen-Ni Hung
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Risk ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Cross-sectional study ,Amphetamine-Related Disorders ,Population ,Taiwan ,Methamphetamine ,Cohort Studies ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Internal medicine ,Humans ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Young adult ,Psychiatry ,education ,Aged ,Proportional Hazards Models ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,Proportional hazards model ,Incidence ,Hazard ratio ,Middle Aged ,Stroke ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Cardiovascular Diseases ,Propensity score matching ,Cohort ,Central Nervous System Stimulants ,Female ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Follow-Up Studies ,Cohort study - Abstract
OBJECTIVE Long-term follow-up data regarding the association between methamphetamine use and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications are scarce. We investigated the risk of complications in methamphetamine users over a decade. METHODS A total of 1,315 inpatients treated for methamphetamine use were recruited from the Psychiatric Inpatient Medical Claims database in Taiwan between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2000, and matched with a population proxy comparison group at a ratio of 1:4 through propensity score matching. All patients were monitored for any incident complication until December 31, 2010. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the risk of ICD-9-CM cardiovascular diseases and stroke events. RESULTS The patients were mostly male, and approximately half were younger than 30 years. The methamphetamine cohort had higher incidences of cardiovascular diseases and stroke events than the comparison cohort (87.5/10,000 vs 55.3/10,000 person-years, P < .001) and was significantly associated with an increased risk of the complications (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.55, P < .001), particularly arrhythmia (HR = 1.92, P = .014) and hemorrhagic stroke (HR = 2.09, P = .001). The risk of cardiovascular sequelae was more significant in younger patients (< 30 y) (HR = 2.22, P = .001), whereas the risk of stroke events was higher among the older patients (≥ 30 y) (HR = 1.86, P = .001). CONCLUSIONS Methamphetamine use is significantly associated with a risk of subsequent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications. Age appears to be an effect modifier for the risk estimation.
- Published
- 2016