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Antiepileptic drug use in community-dwelling and institutionalized elderly: a nationwide study of over 1 300 000 older people

  • Pharmacoepidemiology and Prescription
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate whether institutionalization is associated with the use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and to compare the association between use of AEDs and psychotropics in community-dwelling and institutionalized elderly, after adjustment for age, sex and co-morbidity (i.e. number of other drugs).

Methods

We analyzed data on age, sex and dispensed drugs for individuals aged ≥65 years registered in the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register from July to September 2008, record-linked to the Swedish Social Services Register (n = 1 345 273: 1 258 565 community-dwelling and 86 708 institutionalized elderly). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyze whether institutionalization and use of psychotropics (i.e. antipsychotics, anxiolytics, hypnotics/sedatives and antidepressants) were associated with the use of AEDs.

Results

AEDs were used by 2% of the community-dwelling and 9% of the institutionalized elderly. The most commonly used AEDs were carbamazepine, gabapentin, pregabalin, valproic acid and lamotrigine. Institutionalization was strongly associated with AED use (ORadjusted = 3.98; 95% CI 3.86–4.10). In community-dwelling elderly, AED use was associated with an increased probability of use of all types of psychotropics. However, among institutionalized elderly, the associations between use of AEDs and psychotropics showed a mixed pattern.

Conclusions

AED use seems to be common among Swedish institutionalized elderly, and institutionalization is a strong determinant of AED use. Our results may also indicate an off-label prescribing of AEDs as an alternative to psychotropics in the institutional setting. This finding needs to be confirmed by others and evaluated with respect to outcomes of this treatment in institutionalized elderly.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Board of Health and Welfare for providing data. This study was supported financially by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (dnr 2007–5870).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Gävlegatan 16, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden

    Kristina Johnell & Johan Fastbom

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  1. Kristina Johnell
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  2. Johan Fastbom
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Correspondence to Kristina Johnell.

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Johnell, K., Fastbom, J. Antiepileptic drug use in community-dwelling and institutionalized elderly: a nationwide study of over 1 300 000 older people. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 67, 1069–1075 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-011-1051-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-011-1051-2

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