Association of Psychotropic Prescriptions With Non-Registered Indications and the Risk of Mortality in Older Adults: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVE

Psychotropic drug use is common in older adults, with off-label use reported despite limited understanding of the safety outcomes compared to on-label use. Incomplete recordings of treatment indications in the Danish National Prescription Register (DNPR) raise concerns about potential off-label medication use, particularly among older adults. We, therefore, investigated the association between psychotropic prescriptions with non-registered indications in DNPR and the 1-year all-cause mortality in older adults, including subgroups with any psychiatric disorders, depression, or dementia.

METHODS

Register-based cohort study following all older adults (≥ 65) who redeemed a first-time (since 1995) prescription of either antidepressants, antipsychotics, or benzodiazepine during 2006-2017. Redemption of a prescription with non-registered indications in the DNPR was the exposure. The outcome, 1-year all-cause mortality was analyzed using Poisson regression, estimating incidence rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals, adjusting for socio-demographics and clinical factors.

RESULTS

32% of prescriptions filled by 202,067 individuals for antidepressants, 37% of 97,387 for antipsychotics, and 22% of 130,471 for benzodiazepines had non-registered indications. No significant differences in mortality rates were found for antidepressants and antipsychotics with non-registered indications, while higher mortality rates were associated with benzodiazepines, mitigated when excluding individuals receiving intravenous administrations representing end-of-life treatment. The results remained consistent in subgroup analyses in patients with any psychiatric disorders, depression, or dementia and further stratified analyses by sex and age.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that while psychotropic prescriptions with non-registered indications in DNPR were prevalent in older adults, they were not associated with excess mortality.