Inpatient Antipsychotic Drug Use in 1998, 1993, and 1989

Polypharmacy and high-dose antipsychotics at the time of discharge from acute psychiatric wards

“…Internationally, the rate of polypharmacy in discharged individuals was 28% in Italy, 10 27.5% in Canada, 15 35.6% in Norway 16 and 40% in the Medicaid group in the USA, 17 all higher than what we observed. However, our finding was similar to that of Centorrino et al 18 in the USA and Barbui et al 12 in Italy where 15.8 and 13% respectively were on polypharmacy.…”

Multiple Versus Single Antipsychotic Agents for Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients: Case-Control Study of Risks Versus Benefits

“…Recent studies have found simultaneous use of more than one antipsychotic agent in 25%-50% of hospitalized psychiatric patients (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). In an analysis of recent antipsychotic drug use among hospitalized patients, we found prescribing patterns that were consistent with the preceding reports in that multiple antipsychotics were given to 43% of patients in 1998 (compared with 6% in 1993 and 2% in 1989), with a corresponding 46% increase in estimated chlorpromazine-equivalent total daily dose of antipsychotic agents between 1989 and 1998 (10).…”

Common Proteomic Changes in the Hippocampus in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder and Particular Evidence for Involvement of Cornu Ammonis Regions 2 and 3

“…First, the effect of use of psychotropic medications at the time of death (on or off these medications) was analyzed using ANCOVA, adjusting for the covariates mentioned previously. Second, the cumulative effect of antipsychotic medications (fluphenazine equivalents in milligrams) 61 on spot abundances was assessed. Lifetime antipsychotic dose was highly skewed; as a consequence, the combined group of subjects with schizophrenia and subjects with bipolar disorder was classified based on sample size into 1 of 6 categories as follows: (1) dose of 0 fluphenazine equivalents (n=6); (2) dose of 5 to 3000 fluphenazine equivalents (n=6); (3) dose of 4000 to 12 000 fluphenazine equivalents (n=7); (4) dose of 15 000 to 25 000 fluphenazine equivalents (n=7); (5) dose of 30 000 to 90 000 fluphenazine equivalents (n=6); and (6) dose of 100 000 to 400 000 fluphenazine equivalents (n=7).…”