TY - JOUR

T1 - Mortality and use of psychotropic medication in patients with stroke

T2 - a population-wide, register-based study

AU - Jennum, Poul

AU - Baandrup, Lone

AU - Iversen, Helle K

AU - Ibsen, Rikke

AU - Kjellberg, Jakob

N1 - Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

PY - 2016/3/8

Y1 - 2016/3/8

N2 - OBJECTIVES: The study sought to describe whether psychotropic medication may have long-term side effects in patients with stroke compared with controls.SETTING: Use of national register data from healthcare services were identified from the Danish National Patient Registry in Denmark. Information about psychotropic medication use was obtained from the Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics.OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate all-cause mortality in relation to the use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antipsychotics in patients with stroke and matched controls.PARTICIPANTS: Patients with a diagnosis of stroke and either no drug use or preindex use of psychotropic medication (n=49,968) and compared with control subjects (n=86,100) matched on age, gender, marital status and community location.PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: All-cause mortality.RESULTS: All-cause mortality was higher in patients with previous stroke compared with control subjects. Mortality HRs were increased for participants prescribed serotonergic antidepressant drugs (HR=1.699 (SD=0.030), p=0.001 in patients; HR=1.908 (0.022), p<0.001 in controls, respectively), tricyclic antidepressants (HR=1.365 (0.045), p<0.001; HR=1.733 (0.022), p<0.001), benzodiazepines (HR=1.643 (0.040), p<0.001; HR=1.776 (0.053), p<0.001), benzodiazepine-like drugs (HR=1.776 (0.021), p<0.001; HR=1.547 (0.025), p<0.001), first-generation antipsychotics (HR=2.001 (0.076), p<0.001; HR=3.361 (0.159), p<0.001) and second-generation antipsychotics (HR=1.645 (0.070), p<0.001; HR=2.555 (0.086), p<0.001), compared with no drug use. Interaction analysis suggested statistically significantly higher mortality HRs for most classes of psychotropic drugs in controls compared with patients with stroke.CONCLUSIONS: All-cause mortality was higher in patients with stroke and controls treated with benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antipsychotics than in their untreated counterparts. Our findings suggest that care should be taken in the use and prescription of such drugs, and that they should be used in conjunction with adequate clinical controls.

AB - OBJECTIVES: The study sought to describe whether psychotropic medication may have long-term side effects in patients with stroke compared with controls.SETTING: Use of national register data from healthcare services were identified from the Danish National Patient Registry in Denmark. Information about psychotropic medication use was obtained from the Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics.OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate all-cause mortality in relation to the use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antipsychotics in patients with stroke and matched controls.PARTICIPANTS: Patients with a diagnosis of stroke and either no drug use or preindex use of psychotropic medication (n=49,968) and compared with control subjects (n=86,100) matched on age, gender, marital status and community location.PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: All-cause mortality.RESULTS: All-cause mortality was higher in patients with previous stroke compared with control subjects. Mortality HRs were increased for participants prescribed serotonergic antidepressant drugs (HR=1.699 (SD=0.030), p=0.001 in patients; HR=1.908 (0.022), p<0.001 in controls, respectively), tricyclic antidepressants (HR=1.365 (0.045), p<0.001; HR=1.733 (0.022), p<0.001), benzodiazepines (HR=1.643 (0.040), p<0.001; HR=1.776 (0.053), p<0.001), benzodiazepine-like drugs (HR=1.776 (0.021), p<0.001; HR=1.547 (0.025), p<0.001), first-generation antipsychotics (HR=2.001 (0.076), p<0.001; HR=3.361 (0.159), p<0.001) and second-generation antipsychotics (HR=1.645 (0.070), p<0.001; HR=2.555 (0.086), p<0.001), compared with no drug use. Interaction analysis suggested statistically significantly higher mortality HRs for most classes of psychotropic drugs in controls compared with patients with stroke.CONCLUSIONS: All-cause mortality was higher in patients with stroke and controls treated with benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antipsychotics than in their untreated counterparts. Our findings suggest that care should be taken in the use and prescription of such drugs, and that they should be used in conjunction with adequate clinical controls.

KW - Aged

KW - Aged, 80 and over

KW - Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic

KW - Antipsychotic Agents

KW - Case-Control Studies

KW - Denmark

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Mental Disorders

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Mortality

KW - Proportional Hazards Models

KW - Registries

KW - Stroke

U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010662

DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010662

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26956165

VL - 6

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

SN - 2044-6055

IS - 3

M1 - e010662

ER -