Descriptive study and pharmacotherapeutic intervention in patients with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease at nursing homes in southern Sweden.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the drug use in epilepsy and Parkinson's patients living in nursing homes and to evaluate the impact of multi-speciality team intervention on health-related quality of life, activities of daily living (ADL) and confusion state.

METHODS

Nursing home residents with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease in the county of Skåne in Sweden were identified. From 119 nursing homes, 262 patients were identified. After obtaining informed consent, 157 patients from 48 nursing homes were included. Of these patients 74 were diagnosed with epilepsy and 84 with Parkinson's disease (one patient had both diagnoses). The average age of the epilepsy patients was 79 years and of the Parkinson's patients 81 years. Pharmacists documented the patients' drug use and any drug-related problems after communication with nursing-home residents, their contact persons at the nursing home and the residents' physicians. A multi-speciality group consisting of pharmacists, a primary care physician, a neurologist, a neuro-psychiatrist and a clinical pharmacologist evaluated the patients' medication and, when appropriate, suggested changes. Lists of each resident's medications were collected together with information about drug-related problems. The use of drugs deemed inappropriate for geriatric nursing-home residents according to Beer's criteria was documented. Health-related quality of life was evaluated using a generic health-related quality of life instrument, SF-36. Confusion state was measured using the Behaviour Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease Rating Scale (Behave-AD), and ability to perform ADL was assessed using the Schwab and England capacity for daily living scale. All measurements were repeated after approximately 6 months. During that period, for the group randomised to active intervention, the physicians involved in the care of the patients had received the recommendations for changes in drug treatment from the multi-speciality group.

RESULTS

Epilepsy patients at nursing homes used on average 8.0 drugs for continuous use whereas Parkinson's patients used 8.6 drugs. According to Beer's criteria about 40% of both patient groups used drugs that are classified as inappropriate to geriatric nursing-home patients. Dopamine receptor-blocking psychotropic drugs were used by 29% of the Parkinson's patients. Indication for a patient's total drug treatment was not documented for 50% of epilepsy and 40% of Parkinson's patients. There were no significant differences between the active and control groups in changes in SF-36, Behave-AD or ADL for epilepsy patients. For Parkinson's patients there was a significant decrease in ADL for the active group, whereas there were no differences in SF-36 or Behave-AD.

CONCLUSION

Nursing-home residents with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease use many drugs and often drugs that are classified as inappropriate. A simple problem-oriented questionnaire may be helpful in identifying specific drug-related problems in geriatric patients with common neurological diseases. Methods on how to improve the pharmacotherapy of these patients still have to be developed.