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FRIDAY, June 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are associated with a higher risk for mortality in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study published online May 19 in Neurology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Tatyana Sarycheva, M.D., from University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, and colleagues used data from the Medication Use and Alzheimer Disease cohort of all Finnish persons with a clinically verified AD diagnosis (70,718 individuals) from 2005 to 2011 to evaluate the risk for death for those with incident AED use versus nonuse in people with AD.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that nearly 50 percent discontinued AEDs within six months. AED users had an increased relative risk for death (inverse probability of treatment weighting [IPTW] hazard ratio [HR], 1.23; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 1.36) compared with nonusers. This was largely attributable to deaths from dementia (IPTW HR, 1.62; 95 percent CI, 1.42 to 1.86), as there was no difference in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular deaths (IPTW HR, 0.98; 95 percent CI, 0.67 to 1.44). Mortality overall was highest during the first 90 days of AED use (IPTW HR, 2.40; 95 percent CI, 1.91 to 3.03). Compared with users of newer AEDs, the relative risk for death was greater among users of older AEDs (IPTW HR, 1.79; 95 percent CI, 1.52 to 2.16).<\/p>\n
“In older vulnerable patients with a cognitive disorder, careful consideration of AED initiation and close adverse events monitoring are needed,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n
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