Antidepressants and the risk of death in older patients with depression: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Antidepressants are frequently used in older patients with depression, but little is known about the comparative safety of individual agents. The objective of the study was to determine the comparative risk of death of antidepressants in older patients with depression.

Methods And Findings: We carried out a cohort study from 2004 to 2015 utilizing the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database, a population-based database supplied by statutory health insurance providers covering approximately 17% of the general population and all geographical regions.

Characteristics and drug use patterns of older antidepressant initiators in Germany.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics, drug use patterns, and predictors for treatment choice in older German patients initiating antidepressant (AD) treatment.

Methods: Using the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database, we identified a cohort of AD initiators aged at least 65 years between 2005 and 2011. Potential indications, co-morbidity, and co-medication as well as treatment patterns such as the duration of the first treatment episode were assessed.

Comparative risk of death in older adults treated with antipsychotics: A population-based cohort study.

Although the use of antipsychotics has been associated with an increased risk of death, data on the safety of individual substances is scarce. We thus aimed to compare the risk of death in new users of individual antipsychotics aged =>65 years and conducted a cohort study in the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database between 2005 and 2011. Patients were followed from initiation of treatment until death, 90 days after cohort entry, end of insurance or the end of the study period.

Treatment patterns and characteristics of older antipsychotic users in Germany.

The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics and treatment patterns of older antipsychotic (AP) users in Germany. We carried out a cohort study in the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database and identified new AP users aged at least 65 years between 2005 and 2011. Possible indications, comedication, and information on persistence and adherence, concurrent multiple use, and switch of APs were assessed.

The prescribing of lipid lowering drugs during a 1-year period: analysis of 7490 health insurance files.

A study of prescription patterns by office-based physicians was conducted to analyse the use of lipid lowering drugs (LLD) in a Germany area of 1,768,874 inhabitants during a 1-year period. The prescription database consisted of health insurance files from a random sampling of persons (n=7490) belonging to a large statutory health insurance organization during 1993-1994. During the study period LLD were prescribed to about 2.

[Utilization patterns of dementia patients in the light of statutory health insurance data].

In describing the patterns of utilization of healthcare services by dementia patients in comparison to age- and sex-matched controls the study was to provide information on special care needs of patients with dementia concerning somatic diseases. A representative sample of insured individuals from 1998 to 2002 (the "Versichertenstichprobe AOK Hessen/KV Hessen") provided the database. Patients with dementia were defined according to the ICD-coded billing diagnoses.

First patient-centered drug information service in Germany--a descriptive study.

Background: The majority of patients have unmet drug information needs, and patients' knowledge of their own treatment is often poor. This is a major obstacle to a more patient-centered healthcare system.

Objective: To explore patterns of patients' unmet drug information needs and outcomes of counseling patients by a drug and therapy information center (DTIC).

[Psychopharmaceutical prescriptions to older people. A comparison between patients in aged- and nursing homes, outpatient treatment with nursing care and outpatients without nursing care].

To determine, whether age, sex, grade of need of care and living in nursing homes can influence prescribing behavior in elderly. In a retrospective and longitudinal study, the pattern of psychoactive drug prescriptions of nursing home residents was compared with non-institutionalized people with and without need of care. During 1999, the computerized files of 3592 people (> 60 years), insured by a health insurance fund (BKK) in Berlin, Germany, were obtained.

Pattern of prescriptions issued by nursing home-based physicians versus office-based physicians for frail elderly patients in German nursing homes.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the physician prescription pattern for frail elderly patients in German nursing homes and to identify differences, if any, between that of physicians based in the nursing homes (A) and those with office-based practices (B).

Methods: Retrospective, longitudinal study of medication prescriptions on the basis of the database of a health insurance (Betriebskrankenkasse) in Berlin, Germany. We assessed the medication prescriptions for all 996 unselected insured individuals aged > or = 60 years who were insured throughout 1999 and lived in nursing homes.

[Validity of diagnoses of mental disorders by primary care physicians].

Background And Objective: Even in young adult age, psychological disorders are highly prevalent. Family doctors and gynaecologists are the physicians most often consulted by young women. Hence, they have a special responsibility to diagnose psychiatric disorders and--if necessary--to refer to a specialist.

Prescriptions of systemic antibiotics for children in Germany aged between 0 and 6 years.

Limited information is available about systemic antibiotic use among children in Germany. We therefore assessed prescription patterns by office-based physicians to analyse antibiotic consumption in early childhood. A total of 331 children < 6 years were eligible for inclusion.

[Use of drugs in residents of homes for the elderly and nursing homes in comparison with patients in ambulatory care or without need of care].

Background And Objective: Only a few studies have been done in Germany on the use of drugs in homes for the elderly and nursing homes. This is the first retrospective and longitudinal pharmaco-epidemiological study comparing the pattern of drug prescriptions for patients in nursing or for-the-elderly homes with that for health-insured ambulant patients or those not requiring care, all of them of the same age-group.

Patients And Methods: The samples were taken from a cohort of 3592 members of a company health insurance in Berlin, aged 60 years or over (912 men, 2680 women) who had been insured throughout 1999.

First results from an intensified monitoring system to estimate drug related hospital admissions.

Aims: An intensified monitoring system was set up to identify drug related hospital admissions and estimate population-based incidences for commonly prescribed medications.

Methods: Pharmacovigilance-centres systematically screened nonelective admissions to emergency rooms or departments of internal medicine for drug related hospitalizations (DRH). Clinical pharmacologists used standardized causality assessment.

[Confidentiality within the scope of secondary data research--approaches to a solution of the problem of data concentration].

In order to implement general data protection requirements and internationally recognised ethical requirements, research with personal health and social data demands a specific framework for the secure handling of confidential data. In the process of transferring data from the health service providers to the place where they are analysed, an important role is played by a so-called trust centre, responsible for pseudonymisation of personal and institutional identifiers. An undesirable concentration of data in the trust centre can be avoided by early separation of data in the data transfer institution: the trust centre receives only the identifier to be pseudonymised, while the health provision data are sent direct to the analysing institution, where they can be matched with the pseudonyms from the trust centre, with the help of a unique case number.

Adolescents' drug use and drug knowledge.

Unlabelled: Self-medication is a common event. To use drugs correctly, a basic knowledge about drugs is required. Poor data are available about adults' drug knowledge.

Outpatient costs of osteoporosis in a national health insurance population.

There are few valid data on the outpatient diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis in Germany, despite the high prevalence of this disease and the high costs associated with its complications. We therefore conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate the prevalence of documented osteoporosis and the use of health care resources in its outpatient treatment in a representative random sample of 7490 patients from the Dresden area who were insured under the national health insurance program for a 1-year period from the 3rd quarter of 1993 to the 2nd quarter of 1994. Documented cases of osteoporosis were identified by International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision diagnostic codes M80 to M82, and the costs of diagnostic services for osteoporosis were calculated using a uniform fee schedule.

P-glycoprotein inhibitor erythromycin increases oral bioavailability of talinolol in humans.

Objective: Increased bioavailability of the P-glycoprotein (Pgp) substrates digoxin and cyclosporin due to erythromycin has been observed in vivo. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of orally administered erythromycin on the oral bioavailability of the beta-blocker talinolol. Talinolol is a suitable model compound for Pgp drug-drug interaction studies due to its Pgp-related active intestinal secretion and lack of any significant metabolism.

Regional drug information service.

Background: Drug information centers (DICs) were established in Europe more than two decades ago. The majority of German DICs were created in the 90s. The regional University hospital-based DIC, which offers services to physicans, is now in operation for three and a half years .

Unexpected effect of verapamil on oral bioavailability of the beta-blocker talinolol in humans.

Purpose: To quantitate the effect of verapamil administered orally, a calcium channel blocker and potent inhibitor of P-glycoprotein on oral pharmacokinetics of the beta1-adrenergic receptor antagonist talinolol, a substrate of P-glycoprotein.

Subjects And Methods: In a randomized, crossover placebo-controlled study, oral pharmacokinetics of talinolol (50 mg) after concomitant administration of single doses of R-verapamil (120 mg) or placebo were investigated in 9 healthy volunteers. Concentrations of talinolol, verapamil, and its main metabolite norverapamil were measured in serum with HPLC.

[Use of drugs by women in the federal Saxony district based on survey data].

This study examines sex-specific differences in drug use of the Saxon population and compares them with relevant studies in the old Federal States. This study is based on data of the Drug Survey East (1992) which were secondary analyzed for Saxony. The sample population was representative for Saxon inhabitants aged 18-79 years and encompassed 765 participants interviewed by physicians about their drug use in the last 7 days.

[Reversible thrombocytopenia due to digitoxin overdose].

A 65-year-old woman, known to have peptic ulcers, developed nausea and retching. Clinical examination demonstrated pain on pressure in the epigastrium with otherwise normative findings for age. Two gastric ulcers and gastritis with erosions were seen at endoscopy.