Patterns of anticonvulsant use and adverse drug events in older adults.
Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
; 30(1): 28-36, 2021 01.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33009718
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
To examine indications for, duration of use, and rate of adverse drug events (ADE) attributable to anticonvulsant initiation, as adjudicated by expert review of electronic health records (EHR) of older adults.METHODS:
We identified a cohort of community dwelling Medicare beneficiaries with linked EHR (aged 65+, continuously enrolled with a large health system/until death between 2012 and 2014, n = 20 945) and drew a stratified EHR review sample (n = 1534). An expert reviewed all records to adjudicate anticonvulsant use, years of use, indication for use, and evidence of ADEs attributable to anticonvulsant initiation. After excluding patients with insufficient EHR data (n = 37; 2%), we reconstructed the cohort using inverse probability weights to resemble the original cohort of eligible beneficiaries (n = 20 380). Among incident users of a single anticonvulsant, we estimated the rate of ADEs and described the type and severity of ADEs.RESULTS:
Overall, 12% (n = 2469) of eligible beneficiaries used at least one anticonvulsant in the 2012 to 2014 period (4% [n = 757] incident users, 8% [n = 1712] prevalent users). Incident users were most frequently prescribed gabapentin (n = 461/757, 61%), benzodiazepines (n = 122/757, 16%), and levetiracetam (n = 74/757, 10%); the most common indication was pain relief (n = 214; 28%) followed by epilepsy (n = 53; 7%). Among incident users, the overall ADE rate was 10/100 person-years (95% CI 4-20/100 person-years), of which 29% (n = 28/97) were life threatening (eg, somnolence). Most ADEs among incident monotherapy users were nervous system related (68%, n = 66/97).CONCLUSION:
Many older adult community dwelling traditional Medicare beneficiaries had clinically significant ADEs likely attributable to the initiation of anticonvulsant therapy, which was begun for a range of indications.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Efectos Colaterales y Reacciones Adversas Relacionados con Medicamentos
/
Epilepsia
Tipo de estudio:
Etiology_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Aged
/
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
Asunto de la revista:
EPIDEMIOLOGIA
/
TERAPIA POR MEDICAMENTOS
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article