Antiepileptic medicines in men and women with stroke in Sweden, a registry‐based study

AbstractBackground and aimTo describe the utilization of the first antiepileptic drug (AED) in men and women with previous stroke in a nationwide population.MethodsPrescription data, patient's age, and sex were collected from the Swedish Drug Register and cross‐linked to diagnosis data from the National Patient Register and data from Statistics Sweden. Patients with a first dispensation of an AED after stroke between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2014 were included.ResultsA total of 10 958 patients with stroke were initiated on AED treatment (51% women, mean age 75 years). Gabapentin (n = 3073, 28%), pregabalin (n = 2476, 22%), carbamazepine (n = 2330, 21%), levetiracetam (n = 1158, 10%), and valproic acid (n = 833, 7%) were the most dispensed AEDs. After stratification by the presence of a neuropathic pain diagnosis, gabapentin, and pregabalin were the most used AEDs. In contrast, after stratification for epilepsy/convulsions diagnosis, carbamazepine and levetiracetam were the most initiated AEDs.ConclusionThis study suggests that AED is mainly used for neuropathic/poststroke pain and the study shows gabapentin and pregabalin to be the most used AEDs. For epilepsy, carbamazepine and levetiracetam were the most used AEDs in patients with previous stroke.