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Editor's Correspondence
Oct 8, 2012

Study Findings Hard to Interpret

Author Affiliations

Author Affiliations: Department of General Practice and Elderly Health Care, EMGO Institute of Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(18):1429-1430. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3764

Given the growing prevalence of dementia, it is essential to assess the adverse effects of common treatments for behavioral problems. We welcome the study by Pariente et al1 addressing the role of antipsychotic agents (APs) in causing myocardial infarction. However, there are several issues that warrant more attention.

Our main concern is the possible bias in the selection of persons using APs because of behavioral problems. These problems may be related to myocardial infarction and unfavorable medications. Baseline characteristics show that people using APs had by far more antidepressant and anxiolytic medications.

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