Gout and the risk of incident depression in older adults.

We used the 5% random Medicare claims from Americans 65 years or older from 2006-2012 to examine the association of gout with the risk of developing incident (new) depression using multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model, adjusting for demographics (age, race, sex), common cardiovascular medications, allopurinol, and febuxostat and medical comorbidity. Of the 1.69 million people, 142,596 developed depression. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, gout was independently associated with 42% higher hazard of depression in older adults, confirmed in sensitivity analyses. This finding suggests the gout patients should be screened for depression and may trigger research to assess the role of inflammation and oxidative stress pathways in older people with depression.