Impacts of increases and decreases of drugs on rehabilitation outcomes of subacute stroke patients

Objective: To examine changes in drugs for subacute stroke patients and elucidate the impact of medications on rehabilitation outcomes. Materials and methods: A total of 295 subacute stroke patients who were admitted to the convalescent rehabilitation ward between June 2018 and May 2019 were included. Polypharmacy was defined as five or more drugs at admission. The primary outcome was the Functional Independence Measure Total score (FIM-T) at discharge. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationships between the FIM-T at discharge and drug changes or other factors. This study was conducted in two stages. The first analysis included all stroke patients, and the second analysis included only stroke patients with polypharmacy. Results: On multiple regression analysis, the number of drugs at admission (β=-0.628) was associated with FIM-T at discharge of all stroke patients. Furthermore, the number of additional drugs during hospitalization (β=-1.964) was associated with FIM-T at discharge in the 176 stroke patients with polypharmacy. Conclusion: This study suggested that the number of drugs at admission and the addition of drugs during hospitalization might have a negative impact on the rehabilitation outcomes of subacute stroke patients.