title: Physician prescribing patterns following hospital admission for ischemic cerebrovascular disease.
abstract: Functional recovery after brain injury in laboratory animals is influenced by a variety of drugs. Yet, the impact of currently prescribed drugs on recovery after human stroke remains largely unexplored. From the Duke-VA Stroke Registry, we found 77% of patients admitted to either the university hospital or the Veterans Administration hospital with cerebral infarction were taking medications at the time of their stroke. Ninety-five percent of these patients were receiving medication at the time of discharge. Antihypertensives were the most commonly prescribed agents in the study population, and platelet antiaggregants were second. Sixty-four percent of patients had a change in their antihypertensive regimens. The number of patients prescribed sedative-hypnotic agents doubled over the first 48 hours after hospital admission. The choice of a therapeutic agent for a given clinical indication may have important implications for rehabilitation of the stroke patient.
authors.affiliation: Neurology Research Laboratory, Durham VA Medical Center, NC 27705.
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents