Psychiatric disorder risk in AIH patients similar to general population

Patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) show a similar risk of psychiatric disorders to that of the general population, according to a study.

A total of 1,371 patients with AIH (median age at diagnosis 54 years) and 13,556 comparators were included in the analysis. Among those with AIH, 207 developed a psychiatric disorder during 13,798.6 years of follow-up (median follow-up 8.8 years). A third of these patients developed more than one psychiatric disorder.

At 10 years after AIH diagnosis, the absolute risk of overall psychiatric disorder was 12.4 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 10.6‒14.4). The most common disorders were depression (11.4 percent) and anxiety (3.6 percent), with the same pattern applied to comparators.

The risk of psychiatric disorders at 10 years was comparable between patients with AIH and the general population (adjusted relative risk, 1.0, 95 percent CI, 0.7‒1.6). This finding persisted for all psychiatric disorders.

This study used nationwide Danish registries to identify patients diagnosed with AIH from 1994 to 2022 and matched population comparators. The authors estimated the prevalence of psychiatric disorders at AIH diagnosis based on hospital diagnoses and medical prescription data. They then followed patients and comparators through 2022 and compared the risk of subsequent diagnoses of psychiatric disorders.