Background: An analysis of the US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System database found evidence suggesting that the combination of the cholesterol-lowering drug pravastatin and the antidepressant paroxetine, produced a significant increase in average blood glucose measures.
Objective: Our intent was to investigate the reproducibility of these findings by conducting a similar analysis of administrative and prescription claims data from patients receiving primary care at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Method: We conducted an observational, retrospective review of 2149 adult patient records to compare mean measures of blood glucose between groups receiving concomitant paroxetine and pravastatin with the pooled means of those receiving 19 different combinations of a statin and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant.