HOUSTON – A significant proportion of epilepsy patients in the United States are not taking newer antiepileptic medications, results from a pilot study suggested.
The finding comes from the Connectors Project, a collaboration between the Epilepsy Foundation and UCB Pharma that is intended to improve epilepsy patient care in underserved areas of the United States. One aim of the project is to evaluate the current status and geographic variations of antiepileptic drug (AED) use to identify regions where epilepsy care might be improved.
Doug Brunk/Frontline Medical News
Shown are study authors Dr. Jesse Fishman (from left), Patricia O. Shafer, and Dr. Joseph Sirven.
Dr. Sirven, who chairs the department of neurology at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz., reported that about 2.5 million epilepsy patients were identified from 2013 to 2015. Of these, 237,347 patients were newly treated with AEDs. As expected, states with the highest population had the highest volume of epilepsy patients prescribed an AED, including California (8.2%), Texas (7.7%), Florida (6.9%), and New York (6.5%). Regions with the highest total proportion of phenytoin use and the lowest proportion of newer AED use were Washington, D.C. (24.7% vs. 58.1%, respectively), Mississippi (24.4% vs. 53.1%), Louisiana (20.7% vs. 57.6%), and Arkansas (20.3% vs. 56.2%). At the same time, states with the highest total proportion of newer AED use and lowest proportion of phenytoin use were Hawaii (77.7% vs. 17.6%, respectively), Montana (70.4% vs. 7.9%), Alaska (67.8% vs. 8.4%), Delaware (66.9% vs. 10.3%), and Colorado (66.5% vs. 11.8%).
When the researchers limited the analysis to epilepsy patients who were newly treated with AEDs, they found that Hawaii and Alaska had the highest percentage of phenytoin use, compared with all other states (39.1% and 38.8%). States with the lowest proportion of phenytoin use were Vermont (2.4%), Delaware (2.6%), and Montana (3.7%). North Dakota had the highest use of older AEDs (29.6%), followed by Washington, D.C. (27.9%), Vermont (26.9%), and Maine (25.8%). Meanwhile, Idaho had the highest proportion of patients treated with newer AEDs (86.1%), followed by Montana (84.4%), Delaware (82.2%), Rhode Island (82%), Wyoming (81.1%), and Minnesota (80.3%).
“One question we haven’t answered is: ‘What are the long-term implications of initial AED selection?’ ” coauthor Jesse Fishman, PharmD, of UCB Pharma said at the meeting. “Initially, the selection may be from a hospital or an ER physician. Maybe there’s some relationship between the ER physician for seeing the seizure patient, they get on a medication, and then it’s carried over for some time and they don’t see a specialist. We’re looking at how referrals are tied to this. It may not be the neurologists who are selecting these initial drugs and the patients are staying on them.”
The study was sponsored by UCB Pharma. Dr. Sirven disclosed that he has served as a consultant for UCB Pharma, Acorda Therapeutics, and Upsher-Smith. Dr. Fishman is employed by UCB Pharma.