Cargando…

Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits

Background Epilepsy is considered when a patient has at least two unprovoked seizures that occurred more than a day apart. Seizure control depends upon several factors, including adequate treatment and its dosage, patients' daily activities, and adherence to antiepileptic medications. The study...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Awan, Shakeel A, Khawaja, Imran, Babar, Muhammad, Khan, Faheem
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9389025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35989764
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27072
_version_ 1784770346920968192
author Awan, Shakeel A
Khawaja, Imran
Babar, Muhammad
Khan, Faheem
author_facet Awan, Shakeel A
Khawaja, Imran
Babar, Muhammad
Khan, Faheem
author_sort Awan, Shakeel A
collection PubMed
description Background Epilepsy is considered when a patient has at least two unprovoked seizures that occurred more than a day apart. Seizure control depends upon several factors, including adequate treatment and its dosage, patients' daily activities, and adherence to antiepileptic medications. The study aimed to assess the rate of adherence to antiepileptic drugs (AED) in patients with epilepsy. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Neurology, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan, between November 2019 and October 2020. All participants who presented to the emergency room with complaints of seizures, had a known diagnosis of epilepsy, aged above 18 years, with no cognitive dysfunction or severe psychiatric disorders were included in the study. Patients with other neurological disabilities (brain tumors, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disorder) or severe psychotic episodes and those with undiagnosed cases of epilepsy were excluded from the study. A predefined proforma was used to assess the level of adherence and non-adherence among patients and they were then divided into their respective groups. Results A total of 150 participants were included in the study. Of patients, 110 were adherent to AED treatment while 40 were non-compliant. It was found that the most frequent cause of non-adherence was that patients forgot their pills (72.5%). Of patients, 7.5% stopped taking the medication when symptoms were relieved. About 12.5% reported affordability to be the reason for non-adherence. The rate of poor seizure control was significantly higher in non-adherent patients as compared to adherent patients (77.5% vs. 49.1%, p = 0.001). It was also found that a greater number of non-adherent patients experienced convulsive seizures in the past year as compared to those who were adherent to their medications (p = 0.006). Conclusion To enhance treatment adherence, the practice of prescribing more simpler treatment regimens among physicians can result in better seizure control, as the complexity of the regimen is found to be a major challenge for adjustment of AED regimens in this regard.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9389025
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Cureus
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93890252022-08-20 Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits Awan, Shakeel A Khawaja, Imran Babar, Muhammad Khan, Faheem Cureus Neurology Background Epilepsy is considered when a patient has at least two unprovoked seizures that occurred more than a day apart. Seizure control depends upon several factors, including adequate treatment and its dosage, patients' daily activities, and adherence to antiepileptic medications. The study aimed to assess the rate of adherence to antiepileptic drugs (AED) in patients with epilepsy. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Neurology, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan, between November 2019 and October 2020. All participants who presented to the emergency room with complaints of seizures, had a known diagnosis of epilepsy, aged above 18 years, with no cognitive dysfunction or severe psychiatric disorders were included in the study. Patients with other neurological disabilities (brain tumors, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disorder) or severe psychotic episodes and those with undiagnosed cases of epilepsy were excluded from the study. A predefined proforma was used to assess the level of adherence and non-adherence among patients and they were then divided into their respective groups. Results A total of 150 participants were included in the study. Of patients, 110 were adherent to AED treatment while 40 were non-compliant. It was found that the most frequent cause of non-adherence was that patients forgot their pills (72.5%). Of patients, 7.5% stopped taking the medication when symptoms were relieved. About 12.5% reported affordability to be the reason for non-adherence. The rate of poor seizure control was significantly higher in non-adherent patients as compared to adherent patients (77.5% vs. 49.1%, p = 0.001). It was also found that a greater number of non-adherent patients experienced convulsive seizures in the past year as compared to those who were adherent to their medications (p = 0.006). Conclusion To enhance treatment adherence, the practice of prescribing more simpler treatment regimens among physicians can result in better seizure control, as the complexity of the regimen is found to be a major challenge for adjustment of AED regimens in this regard. Cureus 2022-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9389025/ /pubmed/35989764 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27072 Text en Copyright © 2022, Awan et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neurology
Awan, Shakeel A
Khawaja, Imran
Babar, Muhammad
Khan, Faheem
Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title_full Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title_fullStr Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title_short Prevalence of Non-adherence to Antiepileptic Drugs in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting to Emergency With Fits
title_sort prevalence of non-adherence to antiepileptic drugs in patients with epilepsy presenting to emergency with fits
topic Neurology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9389025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35989764
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27072
work_keys_str_mv AT awanshakeela prevalenceofnonadherencetoantiepilepticdrugsinpatientswithepilepsypresentingtoemergencywithfits
AT khawajaimran prevalenceofnonadherencetoantiepilepticdrugsinpatientswithepilepsypresentingtoemergencywithfits
AT babarmuhammad prevalenceofnonadherencetoantiepilepticdrugsinpatientswithepilepsypresentingtoemergencywithfits
AT khanfaheem prevalenceofnonadherencetoantiepilepticdrugsinpatientswithepilepsypresentingtoemergencywithfits