Association between prescription drugs and all-cause mortality risk in the UK population

Although most drugs currently approved are meant to treat specific diseases or symptoms, it has been hypothesized that some might bear a beneficial effect on lifespan in healthy older individuals, outside of their specific disease indication. Such drugs include, among others, metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors and rapamycin. The UK biobank has recorded prescription medication and mortality data for over 500’000 patients during more than 40 years. In this work we examined the impact of the top 406 prescribed medications on overall mortality rates within the general population of the UK. As expected, most drugs harbor a negative effect on lifespan, probably due to the underlying negative effect of the disease the drug is intended for. Importantly, a few drugs seem to have a beneficial effect on lifespan, including notably Sildenafil, Atorvastatin, Naproxen and Estradiol. These retrospective results warrant further investigation in randomized controlled trials.