Psychotropic drug use in patients with various chronic somatic diseases

Abstract

-Background and Objectives:To reveal insight into prevalence and incidence of psychotropic drug use in patients with various chronic somatic diseases and into time differences between incidence of the somatic disease and start of psychotropic drug use.Methods: A cohort study was performed using the Agis Health Database from 2002 to 2005. Patients with one or more of nine frequently occurring chronic somatic diseases were selected (N = 140,983). The non-exposed group (N = 417,486) was composed of patients without any of these nine diseases. For the somatic disease prescribed drugs were used as a proxy-indicator. Prevalences and incidences of psychotropic drug use were calculated as well as mean time between the incidence of the somatic disease and release date of the psychotropic drug.Results: Prevalence of antidepressant drugs and benzodiazepines was increased among patients with somatic diseases, with odds ratios of respectively 1.83 (95%CI 1.80-1.87) and 2.31 (95%CI 2.27-2.35). In the first year after incidence of the somatic disease, mean duration in time to start of psychotropic drug use was significantly shorter compared to patients without somatic disease.Conclusions: Physicians should be aware of the high prevalence and earlier onset of psychotropic drug use in all patients with chronic somatic diseases. PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG USE IN CHRONICALLY ILL PATIENTS 237

Are There Ethnic Inequalities in Revascularisation Procedure Rate after an ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction?

“…The subset consisted of data from all insured Hindustani Surinamese, Moroccan, and Turkish ethnic minority groups of ≥30 years of age (n = 162,484), whose ethnicity was based on nationality and surnames, as described previously. [ 18 ] In short, first generation ethnic minorities were selected by their nationality. To select the second and third generation, the surnames of the selected first generation ethnic minorities were matched with the remaining of the database and visually controlled on origin of the name.…”

“…We disaggregated the Hindustani Surinamese from the non-Hindustani Surinamese by using Hindustani surnames available from the Achmea Health Database and the Dutch SUNSET study. [ 18 , 20 ] A patient was considered ethnic Dutch when both parents were born in the Netherlands. The final cohort comprised 1,765 STEMI events.…”

Differences in health care utilisation between elderly from ethnic minorities and ethnic Dutch elderly

“…Following methodology reported earlier, subjects from ethnic minorities were identified by their foreign nationality or last name [ 13 , 14 ]. First-generation Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamese were identified by their nationality because ethnicity is not included in the Achmea Health Database.…”

“…First-generation Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamese were identified by their nationality because ethnicity is not included in the Achmea Health Database. Second-generation Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamese were identified by matching the last names of the selected first-generation adults with the remaining names in the database, as well as by visually identifying the origins of names [ 14 ]. The identification of first- and second-generation Moluccans was also based on their last names.…”

Routine health insurance data for scientific research: potential and limitations of the Agis Health Database

“…Boelman et al [26] conducted a study in the AHD to determine the causal relationship between the presence of chronic somatic diseases and the occurrence of psychiatric disease. A cohort of patients with and without chronic somatic diseases was selected by means of proxy indicators based on prescriptions for specific somatic disease, using ATC codes.…”