Prevalence and Prescribers’ Knowledge of Psychotropic Polypharmacy in the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions, Ghana

Abstract

The use of psychotropic medications for treating simple and complex psychological and emotional problems is common and relevant among prescribers. This, therefore, come with the tendency to prescribe many medications to a patient on a single visit due to varied reasons. The study, therefore, sought to ascertain the prevalence and prescribers’ knowledge of psychotropic polypharmacy. A quantitative, descriptive study was conducted using a simple random approach to select and review the prescription records of three hundred and ten (309) patients’ folders retrospectively within seven (7) mental health units across the study area to ascertain the prevalence of Psychotropic Polypharmacy (PP). Fifty-eight (58) prescribers were also selected using probability method (simple random) to respond to the study questionnaire. Psychotropic Polypharmacy was prevalent (66.0%) in the study area with antipsychotic polypharmacy (74.0%) being the common form with the co-prescription of Chlorpromazine (CPZ) + Hadol (70.0%) being frequent. This was more predominant among male patients (78.0%) than female patients (22.0%). Prescribers had high (82.8%) knowledge of Psychotropic Polypharmacy and the majority (68.9%) disagreed that the practice of Psychotropic Polypharmacy should be promoted. The continuous training of prescribers (i.e. mental health officers) on rational prescriptions would help reduce the prevalence of Psychotropic Polypharmacy.