Psychotropic polypharmacy in Australia, 2006 to 2015: a descriptive cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

To describe psychotropic polypharmacy in Australia between 2006 and 2015.

Methods

We used pharmaceutical claims from a national 10% sample of people with complete dispensing histories to estimate the annual prevalence of the combined use (overlap of >60 days exposure) of ≥2 psychotropics overall and within the same class or subclass (class and subclass polypharmacy). We also estimated the proportion of polypharmacy episodes involving one, two, three and four or more unique prescribers.

Results

The prevalence of class polypharmacy between 2006 and 2015 in people dispensed specific psychotropic classes was 5.9-7.3% for antipsychotics, 2.1-3.7% for antidepressants and 4.3-2.9% for benzodiazepines. The prevalence of antipsychotic polypharmacy was higher than expected

SUBMITTER: Brett J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5651325 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature