Hospital use of antipsychotic drugs: polytherapy

Antipsychotic Agents

“…There is also a lack of research evidence that more than one antipsychotic agent is better than one for either short-or long-term treatment, even though antipsychotic combinations ("polytherapy," preferred to the widely employed term "polypharmacy") are commonly used empirically, probably largely in response to typically limited bene fi ts in chronic and disabling illnesses that are dif fi cult to treat, and perhaps owing to clinical sensitivity to the obligation to limit risks commonly associated with unusually high doses of individual drugs [ 35,37,60,67 ] . Polytherapy has rarely been tested for added bene fi ts or safety, but can be expected to add to overall patient side-effect burden, complexity of regimens, risk of nonadherence, and costs, whether or not clinically signi fi cant drug-interactions or major adverse effects increase [ 37 ] .…”

“…Many psychotic patients can be managed safely with adequate medication plus skillful interpersonal and environmental management, ideally in a well-staffed and highly controlled clinical setting such as an inpatient or partial-hospital unit. A risk associated with the application of multiple central depressant drugs in such circumstances ("polytherapy") is that more conservative, but adequate treatment, will be delayed and that total daily drug doses increase, along with risks of adverse effects, drug-interactions, and costs [ 35,37,219 ] .…”

Drugs of abuse among acute psychiatric and medical admissions: laboratory based identification of prevalence and drug influence

“…benzodiazepines and/or antipsychotics), and patients have been recruited both in emergency departments and in acute wards (40)(41)(42). In clinical practice, several psychotropic drugs are commonly combined, despite limited empirical evidence for greater effectiveness or safety of such polypharmacy (43,44). Little is also known about the use of pharmacological and physical restraints, seclusion and combination therapies (42), and practice guidelines for initial inpatient treatment are lacking.…”

Bir üniversite hastanesinde yatarak tedavi gören hastalarda çoklu ilaç kullanımı: Geriye dönük bir çalışma / Polypharmacy among inpatients of a university psychiatry clinic: a retrospective study

“…Antipsychotics are started being prescribed at increasing number of indications and frequency (16). In a study which 305 patients using antipsychotics, frequency of two or more antipsychotic use was found 23% (17). In another study done in France, prescriptions of 2192 psychiatric patients were examined and 49.3% of them were found to be prescribed more than one antipsychotic (18).…”