Antidepressant medication use and nasopharyngeal cancer risk: a nationwide population-based study

Chiao-Fan Lin,1,2,* Hsiang-Lin Chan,1,2 Yi-Hsuan Hsieh,1,2 Hsin-Yi Liang,1,2 Wei-Che Chiu,3,4,* Yena Lee,5 Roger S McIntyre,5,6 Vincent Chin-Hung Chen2,7,81Department of Child Psychiatry, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 2Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 3Department of Psychiatry, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 4School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei, Taiwan; 5Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit, Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 6Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 7Medical Research Department, Health Information and Epidemiology Laboratory, Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan; 8Department of Psychiatry, Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan*These authors contributed equally to this work Background: The association between antidepressant exposure and nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) has not been previously explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between antidepressant prescription, including novel antidepressants, and the risk of NPC in a population-based study.Materials and methods: Data for the analysis were derived from National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 16,957 cases with a diagnosis of NPC and 83,231 matched controls by using a nested case–control design. A conditional logistic regression model was used, with adjustments for potentially confounding variables (eg, comorbid physical diseases, comorbid psychiatric diseases, and other medications).Results: We report no association between NPC incidence and antidepressant prescription. For all classes of antidepressants, antidepressant exposure, regardless of cumulative dose, had no significant effect on NPC incidence (adjusted odds ratio of cumulative selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor exposure ≥336 defined daily dose was 1.18 [95% CI: 0.