Polypharmacy burden and incident epilepsy among older adults in the United States.
Calcium channel blocker plus antihypertensive combination most strongly linked to incident epilepsy
Polypharmacy burden and incident epilepsy among older adults in the United States.
Polypharmacy-the concurrent use of multiple medications-is common in older adults with epilepsy, but little is known about its burden and specific patterns at the time of diagnosis.
To estimate the prevalence of polypharmacy among older adults with incident epilepsy and to describe the most common combinations of drug classes filled prior to epilepsy diagnosis.
This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included 2 768 656 US Medicare beneficiaries aged 67 and older with Part D coverage.
combining calcium channel blockers with antihypertensives raised epilepsy risk most
Antidepressants, gastric medications, and loop diuretics were more prevalent among beneficiaries with incident epilepsy.
SIGNIFICANCE: Older adults with incident epilepsy experience a high burden of polypharmacy at the time of diagnosis, with nearly 90% prescribed five or more drug classes.
Certain drug class combinations, such as antipsychotics and antidepressants, were more frequently observed among those with incident epilepsy.
Older adults who develop epilepsy often take many medications for other health conditions.
In this study of US Medicare beneficiaries, people who were later diagnosed with epilepsy were taking about nine different types of drug classes in the year before diagnosis, compared with about six drug classes among those who did not develop epilepsy.
Certain combinations of drug classes-especially those affecting the brain and nervous system-were more common among people who developed epilepsy.