Psychological distress is an important component of cancer survivorship, particularly among patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. However, the prognostic significance of postoperative psychiatric medication exposure following radical cystectomy remains unclear. This study evaluated the association between postoperative antidepressant and/or anxiolytic exposure and survival outcomes following radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. The analysis identified 2,461 patients exposed to postoperative psychiatric medication and 7,257 unexposed patients, yielding 1,521 matched pairs after propensity score matching.

Patients exposed to postoperative psychiatric medication had poorer overall survival than matched controls (hazard ratio, 1.377). Similar associations were observed in subgroup analyses. Antidepressant-only exposure was associated with poorer overall survival…