A pharmacoepidemiological study of antiepileptic drug consumption (1992-2004)

Epilepsy and the epileptic syndromes are common neurological diseases and represent an important public health problem that has given rise to marked social and healthcare concerns. To analyse the changes in the consumption of antiepileptic drugs in the Basque Country Autonomous Community over a 13 year period (1992-2004). The consumption of the N03 subgroup has been studied using data from the ECOM database of the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, which records the number of drug packets dispensed on National Health Service prescription. The results are expressed as defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day (DID). A significant increase is observed in the consumption of antiepileptic drugs over the study period (5.53-9 DID). The most widely used drugs were phenobarbital, carbamazepine, valproic acid and phenytoin and, in recent years, the extensive use of gabapentin is of particular note. Epidemiological studies on epilepsy are difficult to perform due to a number of methodological problems which are caused fundamentally by the heterogeneity of the disease. Pharmacoepidemiological studies constitute a simple, effective, low-cost tool for estimating the prevalence of the disease, and furthermore enumerates the drugs used, thus contributing to a rational use of these drugs.