Antiepileptic drug use in Austrian nursing home residents.

Doris Patricia Huber, Reinhard Griener, Eugen Trinka

Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.

Seizure : the journal of the British Epilepsy Association 2013 Jan

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Currently around 30% of all newly developed seizures are diagnosed in persons older than 65 years. Five to 17% of nursing home-residents take antiepileptic drugs. The aim of our study was to analyze the type and frequency of prescribed antiepileptic drugs, as well as their indication, co-morbidities and co-medications in institutionalized elderly in Austria. This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study, which included all residents of the seven public nursing homes in Innsbruck, Austria. The data of 828 probands were extracted from the charts at site and maintained anonymously. The data collection was followed by descriptive statistics. 70 (8.5%; 26 M/44 F) of the 828 (192 M/636 F) residents took at least one antiepileptic medication. In 51.5% the reason for the prescription were epileptic seizures - yielding a minimum prevalence of 4.5%. The most often used antiepileptic drugs were gabapentin (37%), levetiracetam (24%) and valproate (18.5%). The three most common co-morbidities were arterial hypertension (49%), ischemic stroke (36%) and other cerebrovascular diseases (29%). Six to nine co-medications were prescribed in 41%, 26% had more than 10 additional drugs and 91% were treated with proconvulsive co-medications (64/70, median 2, range 0-6). Austrian nursing home residents receive more frequently newer antiepileptic drugs compared to other countries, but co-prescription of proconvulsive drugs is common. Copyright © 2012 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Doris Patricia Huber, Reinhard Griener, Eugen Trinka. Antiepileptic drug use in Austrian nursing home residents. Seizure : the journal of the British Epilepsy Association. 2013 Jan;22(1):24-7