# Use of psychotropic medications among glioma patients in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Wales

## TL;DR

This study found that glioma patients in four European countries had high rates of psychotropic drug use, especially around the time of diagnosis.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into psychotropic medication use patterns before and after glioma diagnosis across multiple countries.

## Key findings

- Psychotropic drug use increased significantly in the months before glioma diagnosis, peaking at the time of diagnosis.
- New psychotropic prescriptions remained higher among glioma patients than comparators for two years post-diagnosis.
- Antiepileptics, anxiolytics, hypnotics, and sedatives were the main drivers of increased psychotropic use.

## Abstract

Glioma patients often suffer from psychiatric and neurological conditions. However, little is known about the patterns of use of psychotropic drugs pre- and post-glioma diagnosis. Therefore, we assessed temporal patterns of psychotropic prescriptions among glioma patients, compared to an age and sex matched comparison cohort in four European countries.

Incident gliomas were identified in Wales from the Secured Anonymized Information Linkage Databank (2005–2016) and population-based registries in Denmark (2001–2016), Norway (2006–2019), and Sweden (2008–2018). From each data source, a cancer-free comparison cohort was matched to the glioma cases by age and sex. We calculated rates of new psychotropic prescriptions and any psychotropic prescriptions during the 2 years prior to and post glioma diagnosis. Analyses were stratified by histological subtypes and subclasses of psychotropic medications.

We identified 16,007 glioma patients. The rate of new psychotropic drug use increased from 7 months before diagnosis, peaking around the month of glioma diagnosis (with peak rates ranging from 227 to 753 new psychotropic drugs per 1000 person-months). New use remained substantially higher among glioma patients than comparators throughout the 2-year follow-up period after glioma diagnosis, though rates of new use continued to decline throughout. New use was largely driven by antiepileptics, anxiolytics, hypnotics, and sedatives. Patterns were similar when analyses were stratified by histological subtype.

Psychotropic drug use among glioma patients was high, and elevations observed around the time of cancer diagnosis, largely driven by antiepileptics, anxiolytics, hypnotics, and sedatives, are likely associated with the consequences of the disease.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11060-025-04996-0.