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...

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Autores principales: Fernandes, Deanna, Cheong, Josepha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Published by Elsevier Inc. 2023
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.
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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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