Patterns of Psychotropic Medication Use among Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury

The relationship between psychotropic medication use and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not well understood. The objective of this study was to describe patterns of psychotropic medication use during the months before and after TBI and compare with a non-TBI cohort. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using administrative claims data for a commercially insured population from 2008 to 2014, and assessed monthly prevalence of psychotropic medication use by class before and after TBI (or matched index in the non-TBI controls). We tested time trends and quantified rates of increase using autoregressive models, and determined whether TBI impacted psychotropic medication use using difference-in-difference models. Compared with those without TBI (n = 414,708), individuals with TBI (n = 207,354) were more likely to receive any psychotropic medication both before (36.9% vs. 19.5%, p < 0.001) and after TBI (48.2% vs. 25.7%, p < 0.001). Prior to TBI, the rate of monthly increase in use of psychotropic medications in the TBI cohort was three to four times the rate observed in the non-TBI cohort, and was highest for antidepressants in both cohorts. After accounting for between-group and time trends, TBI was associated with increased use of several psychotropic medications including antipsychotics (rate ratio [RR] 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07, 1.09) and anxiolytics (RR 1.05; 95% CI 1.04, 1.06). Patterns of psychotropic medication use differed significantly between individuals with and without TBI. These results suggest that a better understanding of events leading up to and following TBI is needed to elucidate the role psychotropic medications play in the natural history of TBI.