I46 Polypharmacy in patients with advanced huntington’s disease residing in a nursing home

BackgroundPatients with late-stage Huntington’s disease (HD) are often treated with a variety of drugs. However, especially psychotropic medication increases the risk of side-effects, adversely affecting quality of life.AimsTo report the prevalence of polypharmacy in a long-term care population of p...

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Published in:	Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry Vol. 87; no. Suppl 1; p. A75
Main Authors:	Slobbe, Annemieke, Slats, Diane, JA, Simon, Bogaard, van den, Roos, Raymund AC, Spierenburg, Andrea, Achterberg, Wilco P
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	01-09-2016
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	BackgroundPatients with late-stage Huntington’s disease (HD) are often treated with a variety of drugs. However, especially psychotropic medication increases the risk of side-effects, adversely affecting quality of life.AimsTo report the prevalence of polypharmacy in a long-term care population of patients with advanced HD, focusing on a combination of psychotropic medication influencing the dopaminergic, serotonergic and GABAergic systems.MethodsCross-sectional data on medication prescriptions were obtained for all 65 HD patients residing in a specialised Huntington’s Disease Centre in the Netherlands.ResultsIn these patients, 43% had polypharmacy and 69% used two or more psychotropic drugs. Psychotropic polypharmacy was not related to the age group (p = 0.31) or to the Total Functional Capacity score (0.20). Of the patients prescribed psychotropic drugs 94% used dopaminergic drugs, 66% serotonergic drugs, and 47% used GABAergic drugs. Of these patients, 38% used psychotropic drugs from two different groups. A combination of dopaminergic and serotonergic drugs was used most frequently (68%).ConclusionsThe majority of the HD patients in this study use psychotropic polypharmacy with the associated risk of detrimental side-effects.
ISSN:	0022-3050 1468-330X
DOI:	10.1136/jnnp-2016-314597.211