Dementia-related adverse events associated with direct oral anticoagulants use: a real-world, pharmacovigilance study based on the FAERS database

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are commonly used to prevent and treat thromboembolic diseases. This study aimed to assess and compare dementia related adverse events (AEs) associated with DOACs. AEs related to DOACs from January 2014 to June 2023 were extracted from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database. Disproportionality analysis methods, including reporting odds ratio (ROR), proportional reporting ratio, Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network, and Multi-Item Gamma Poisson Shrinker, were used to evaluate the association between DOACs and dementia-related AEs. There were 12,692,968 AEs reported in FAERS after deduplication. Among these, 165, 206, 1574, and 12 dementia-related AEs that were attributed to dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban, respectively. Apixaban showed the strongest association with dementia-related AEs (ROR 7.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.27–8.06), while rivaroxaban had the lowest ROR (0.95, 95%CI 0.83–1.09). Women exhibited higher RORs for all DOACs, with apixaban showing the most significant correlation. Subgroup analysis indicated a significant link between apixaban and dementia, dementia Alzheimer’s type and senile dementia. Apixaban appears most associated with dementia-related AEs among DOACs, whereas rivaroxaban poses a lower risk. Further research is needed to validate these findings through large-scale prospective studies.