Polypharmacy in psychiatric practice in the Canary Islands

BMC Psychiatry
C de las Cuevas, E J Sanz

Abstract

Polypharmacy with psychoactive drugs is an increasingly common and debatable contemporary practice in clinical psychiatry based more upon experience than evidence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and conditioners of polypharmacy in psychiatric patients. A cross-sectional survey was carried out using the Canary Islands Health Service Clinical Records Database. A representative sample (n = 2,647) of patients with mental disorders receiving psychotropic medication was studied. The mean number of psychoactive drugs prescribed was 1.63 +/- 0.93 (range 1-7). The rate of polypharmacy was 41.9%, with 27.8% of patients receiving two drugs, 9.1% receiving three, 3.2% receiving four, and 1.8% of the patients receiving five or more psychotropic drugs. Multiple regression analysis shows that variables sex and diagnosis have a predictive value with regard to the number of psychotropic drug used, being men and schizophrenic patients the most predisposed. Benzodiazepines were the more prevalent drugs in monotherapy, while anticonvulsants and antipsychotics were the more used in combination with other treatment. A questionable very high degree of same-class polypharmacy was evidenced, while multi-class, adjunctive and...Continue Reading

References

Mar 1, 1988·Journal of the American Geriatrics Society·L Nolan, K O'Malley
Oct 1, 1981·Social Science & Medicine. Part B, Medical Anthropology·C G Helman
Jul 1, 1982·The American Journal of Medicine·J AvornR Hartley
Jan 1, 1997·European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology·L BjerrumJ Kragstrup
Nov 26, 1999·European Psychiatry : the Journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists·H RittmannsbergerH Hinterhuber
Jan 27, 2000·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·A Wazana
Jun 14, 2000·Family Practice·L VeehofB M Jong
Mar 17, 2001·Journal of General Internal Medicine·M D Murray, K Kroenke
Mar 5, 2002·The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry·Stephen M Stahl
May 10, 2002·Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry·H Rittmannsberger
Aug 6, 2002·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Richard C Christensen
Oct 9, 2002·Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica·S M Stahl
Nov 13, 2002·Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety·Carlos De Las CuevasJuan A De La Fuente
Dec 31, 2002·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Robert Kendell, Assen Jablensky
May 14, 1959·The New England Journal of Medicine·D G FRIEND
Apr 10, 2004·Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety·C De Las CuevasJ A De La Fuente
Apr 10, 2004·Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety·C de las CuevasA Mateos
May 11, 2004·Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety·Carlos De las Cuevas, Emilio Sanz

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Sep 10, 2013·European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology·Carlos De las CuevasEmilio J Sanz
Jul 9, 2013·Indian Journal of Pharmacology·Pinaki SarkarSarada Prasanna Swain
Mar 26, 2016·BMJ Open·Seyede Salehe MortazaviShervin Assari
Jul 9, 2009·The Annals of Pharmacotherapy·Kristina JohnellJohan Fastbom
Jun 28, 2007·The Annals of Pharmacotherapy·Kristina JohnellAndrejs Leimanis
Oct 17, 2009·Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics·Jesús De la GándaraJosé Antonio Burón
Jul 10, 2017·British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology·Jonathan BrettSallie-Anne Pearson
May 26, 2017·Cadernos de saúde pública·Juliana de Oliveira CostaMark Drew Crosland Guimarães
Jun 24, 2008·Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care·Kristina Johnell, Johan Fastbom
Jan 8, 2021·International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy·Suhaib HattabHaitham Jahrami
Oct 30, 2020·Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management·Sayeeda RahmanMainul Haque
Sep 4, 2020·British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology·Jonathan BrettNicholas A Buckley
Apr 18, 2021·Clinical Psychology Review·Amitai AbramovitchAvraham Schweiger

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

OMI
AP

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Antipsychotic Drugs

Antipsychotic drugs are a class of medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Discover the latest research on antipsychotic drugs here