Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
INTRODUCTION: Psychotropic medication prescribing amongst elderly veterans has increased over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic due to associated stressors. This is despite the fact that psychotropics such as benzodiazepines, when being prescribed for a period over 2 weeks, are considered as relat...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Published by Elsevier Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934897/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2022.12.231 |
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author | Fernandes, Deanna Cheong, Josepha |
author_facet | Fernandes, Deanna Cheong, Josepha |
author_sort | Fernandes, Deanna |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Psychotropic medication prescribing amongst elderly veterans has increased over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic due to associated stressors. This is despite the fact that psychotropics such as benzodiazepines, when being prescribed for a period over 2 weeks, are considered as relatively contraindicated amongst such patients with an additional PTSD diagnosis due to a worsening of disease state symptoms. The study goal is to determine the extent of elderly PTSD veteran benzodiazepine prescribing for longer than a 2-week time period during 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the 3 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of individuals with an age greater than or equal to 65 with a diagnosis of PTSD who were initiated a benzodiazepine prescription for longer than 2 weeks in the course of the before (January 1, 2016 through January 1, 2019) and during (January 1, 2019 through January 1, 2022) period of the COVID-19 pandemic was surveyed for comparison from amongst the veteran populations across the United States using the VINCI Corporate Data Warehouse. Exclusion criteria included those started on a benzodiazepine prescription from a source outside of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) System. RESULTS: Out of 131,381 elderly patients presenting to the VHA System during the 3-year course prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 24,832 individuals were initiated on a benzodiazepine for longer than 2 weeks despite having a history of PTSD. Of 123,231 elderly patients presenting to the VHA System during the 3-year course of the COVID-19 pandemic, 85,480 individuals were initiated on a benzodiazepine for longer than 2 weeks despite having a history of PTSD. The relative risk of such prescribing during the pandemic as compared to prior to the pandemic is 3.6. CONCLUSIONS: Benzodiazepine prescribing has increased substantially (3.6 times more likely chance of receiving such a medication for longer than 2 weeks) in the elderly veteran population despite having PTSD during the pandemic in comparison to prior to the pandemic. Further studies are needed to determine the true short- and long-term impacts of such prescribing practices upon this patient population. THIS RESEARCH WAS FUNDED BY: All study authors have nothing to disclose. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9934897 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Published by Elsevier Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99348972023-02-17 Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic Fernandes, Deanna Cheong, Josepha Am J Geriatr Psychiatry Poster Number: EI-38 INTRODUCTION: Psychotropic medication prescribing amongst elderly veterans has increased over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic due to associated stressors. This is despite the fact that psychotropics such as benzodiazepines, when being prescribed for a period over 2 weeks, are considered as relatively contraindicated amongst such patients with an additional PTSD diagnosis due to a worsening of disease state symptoms. The study goal is to determine the extent of elderly PTSD veteran benzodiazepine prescribing for longer than a 2-week time period during 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the 3 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of individuals with an age greater than or equal to 65 with a diagnosis of PTSD who were initiated a benzodiazepine prescription for longer than 2 weeks in the course of the before (January 1, 2016 through January 1, 2019) and during (January 1, 2019 through January 1, 2022) period of the COVID-19 pandemic was surveyed for comparison from amongst the veteran populations across the United States using the VINCI Corporate Data Warehouse. Exclusion criteria included those started on a benzodiazepine prescription from a source outside of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) System. RESULTS: Out of 131,381 elderly patients presenting to the VHA System during the 3-year course prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 24,832 individuals were initiated on a benzodiazepine for longer than 2 weeks despite having a history of PTSD. Of 123,231 elderly patients presenting to the VHA System during the 3-year course of the COVID-19 pandemic, 85,480 individuals were initiated on a benzodiazepine for longer than 2 weeks despite having a history of PTSD. The relative risk of such prescribing during the pandemic as compared to prior to the pandemic is 3.6. CONCLUSIONS: Benzodiazepine prescribing has increased substantially (3.6 times more likely chance of receiving such a medication for longer than 2 weeks) in the elderly veteran population despite having PTSD during the pandemic in comparison to prior to the pandemic. Further studies are needed to determine the true short- and long-term impacts of such prescribing practices upon this patient population. THIS RESEARCH WAS FUNDED BY: All study authors have nothing to disclose. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2023-03 2023-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9934897/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2022.12.231 Text en Copyright © 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Poster Number: EI-38 Fernandes, Deanna Cheong, Josepha Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title | Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full | Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_fullStr | Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_short | Benzodiazepine Prescribing Trends Amongst Elderly PTSD Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_sort | benzodiazepine prescribing trends amongst elderly ptsd veterans during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Poster Number: EI-38 |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934897/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2022.12.231 |
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