A Practitioner’s Guide to Prescribing Phenytoin for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The authors developed this phenytoin guideline using drug prescribing information and reviewing the available literature on relevant neuropsychiatric disorders in populations without intellectual disabilities because of the dearth of available literature on the population with intellectual disabilities. This guideline includes indications; contraindications; assessments prior to and during treatment; dosing with particular focus on dosing modifications required by drug-drug interactions, personal characteristics or genetic variants; and adverse drug reactions. The procedures contained in this guideline may not fully account for all of the possible risks of treatment in this population because of the limited studies available; thus, there will be a need to periodically update this guideline as new information becomes available. Nevertheless, the authors believe that this guideline provides a useful resource for clinicians who treat epilepsy in adult individuals with intellectual disabilities, A phenytoin drug utilization review that summarizes this guideline is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)