Trial reportJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2015
Prescription Opioids and Risk of Dementia or Cognitive Decline: A Prospective Cohort Study.
Trial report in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07510373 (Opioid Tapering After Hospital Discharge), which is not on this map. Cited by 63 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Opioid Tapering After Hospital Discharge: Testing an Intervention to Improve Post-operative
Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed.
- Substance use involvement moderates the effect of cortisol response on white-matter microstructure longitudinally.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association of chronic pain and analgesic use with the risks of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Orofacial pain and dementia: a brief narrative review of associations, putative mechanisms, and relevant clinical considerations.Odontology · 2026Review
- Opioid use disorder and dementia risk: evidence from observational and genetic analyses in diverse ancestry cohorts.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Cognitive Change in Older Women.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2026Article
- A Qualitative Study of the Effects of Opioids on Chronic Pain, Function, and Cognition in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2025Article
- Central Nervous System-Active Medication Use in Older Adults With and Without Dementia-A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Observational
- High-impact chronic pain and cognitive decline among Mexicans aged 60 and older from 2012 to 2018.The journal of pain · 2025Article
- Psychological Distress and Cognitive Function in Women: Exploring Potential Mediation by Use of Opiates, Sleep Aids, or Minor Tranquilizers.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2025Article
- Opioid Therapy in Chronic Pain: Assessment of Clinical Outcomes and Relationships With Endocrine Biomarkers.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- History of chronic pain and opioid use is associated with cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2025Article
- Regular use of opioids and dementia, cognitive measures, and neuroimaging outcomes among UK Biobank participants with chronic non-cancer pain.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Investigating causal networks of dementia using causal discovery and natural language processing models.NPJ dementia · 2025Article
- Innovations in pharmacovigilance studies of medicines in older people.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Review
- Medication Exposure and Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Opioids and Dementia in the Danish Population.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Tramadol use and incident dementia in older adults with musculoskeletal pain: a population-based retrospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Chronic Non-cancer Pain and Associated Risks of Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias in Middle-Aged and Older Adults.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2024Article
- Association between multisite musculoskeletal pain and disability trajectories among community-dwelling older adults.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2024Article
- Prescription Opioids and Brain Structure in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Mayo Clinic proceedings · 2024Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo determine whether prescription opioid use is associated with higher dementia risk or greater cognitive decline.
designProspective cohort study.
settingGroup Health, an integrated healthcare delivery system.
participantsCommunity-dwelling individuals aged 65 and older without dementia with at least 10 years of Group Health enrollment at baseline (N = 3,434; median age 74). MEASUREMENTS: The Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) was administered every 2 years. Low scores triggered detailed evaluation, and a multidisciplinary committee assigned dementia diagnoses. From computerized pharmacy data, cumulative opioid exposure was defined as total standardized doses (TSDs) dispensed over 10 years (excluding the most recent year because of possible prodromal symptoms). For comparison, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), characterized similarly, was examined. Dementia risk was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models and CASI trajectory using linear regression models and generalized estimating equations.
resultsSeven hundred ninety-seven participants (23%) developed dementia over a mean follow-up of 7.3 years; 637 (19%) had possible or probable Alzheimer's disease. For cumulative opioid use, the hazard ratios (HRs) for dementia were 1.06 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.88-1.26) for 11 to 30 TSDs, 0.88 (95% CI = 0.70-1.09) for 31 to 90 TSDs, and 1.29 (95% CI = 1.02-1.62) for 91 or more TSDs, versus 0 to 10 TSDs. A similar pattern was seen for NSAID use. Heavier opioid use was not associated with more-rapid cognitive decline.
conclusionPeople with the heaviest opioid or NSAID use had slightly higher dementia risk than people with little or no use. These results may reflect an effect of chronic pain on cognition or residual confounding. Although opioids have other risks, little evidence of long-term cognitive harm specific to opioids was found.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.