A Retrospective Analysis of Antipsychotic Medication Use with Concomitant Clinical Evaluation in Outpatient Psychiatry Department in Palestine
Publication Type
Original research
Authors
manal
Objectives: The objective of this paper was to study antipsychotic
medication use in the outpatient psychiatry department in Palestine.
Methodology: This is a cross sectional study carried out in Palestine on
schizophrenic patients aged between 20 – 65 whose medications have not
been changed in the past six months and they did not have an acute
attack in the last year. Information regarding antipsychotic medications
use was obtained from patients’ medical files; patients’ psychiatric
symptoms were evaluated using the Expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating
Scale (BPRS-E).Results: More than half (53.1%) of 150 patients were on
antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) with average daily dose of 546.9 ±
254.9 mg chlorpromazine equivalents. The average number (mean ± SD) of
medications a patient received was 1.7 ± 0.7. One third of patients on
APP regimen received atypical antipsychotic and all of them received at
least one conventional antipsychotic. Factors significantly and
positively associated with APP were: use of anticholinergic agents
(P<0.001), conventional antipsychotics (P<0.001), depot
formulations (P<0.001) and prescribing higher doses of antipsychotics
(P<0.001). Discussion and Conclusion: Antipsychotic polypharmacy in
this study was common. Adherence to international guidelines in the
treatment of schizophrenia is recommended.
Journal
Title
Advances in Pharmacology and Pharmacy Vol. 2(3), pp. 47 - 53 DOI: 10.13189/app.2014.020301