A population approach to characterise amisulpride pharmacokinetics in older people and Alzheimer’s disease

INTRODUCTION: Current prescribing guidelines for the antipsychotic amisulpride are based largely on pharmacokinetic (PK) studies in young adults, and there is a relative absence of data on older patients, who are at greatest risk of developing adverse events. METHODS: This study aimed to develop a population PK model for amisulpride specifically in older people, by combining data from a richly sampled phase 1, single (50 mg) dose study in healthy older people (n = 20, 65–79 years), with a clinical dataset obtained during off label, low-dose (25–75 mg daily) amisulpride prescribing in older people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 25, 69–92 years), as part of an observational study. RESULTS: After introducing a scaling factor based on body weight, age accounted for 20 % of the inter-individual variability in drug clearance (CL), resulting in a 54 % difference in CL between those aged 65 and those aged 85 years, and higher blood concentrations in older patients. DISCUSSION: These findings argue for the consideration of age and weight-based dose stratification to optimise amisulpride prescribing in older people, particularly in those aged 85 years and above. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00213-016-4379-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.