The study was the work of researchers at the University of Washington and the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Seattle. They followed 2,736 people for 12 years who had an average age of 75 and did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. The participants were asked about their use of NSAIDs.

 

At the beginning of the study, 351 people had a heavy use of NSAIDs and 107 became heavy NSAID users during the follow up period. Heavy use was defined as having prescriptions for NSAIDs 68 percent of the time or more over a two-year period.

 

At the end of the study, 476 patients had developed Alzheimer's or some form of dementia. Also, the researchers found that risk of developing dementia among heavy NSAID users was 66 percent higher than among people with little or no NSAID use.

 

“It has been argued for some time that NSAID use delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease. It would follow that studies looking at younger people who use NSAIDs would show fewer cases of Alzheimer's, while in groups of older people there might be more cases, including those that would have occurred earlier if they had not been delayed. We must not ignore the fundamental finding, which is an increase in the risk of dementia in the NSAID users,” study author John C. S. Breitner, M.D. of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle was quoted as saying.