RESEARCH ARTICLE
Antipsychotic Use Pattern in Schizophrenia Outpatients: Correlates of Polypharmacy
Esra Yazici1, *, Ali S. Cilli1, Ahmet B. Yazici1, Hayriye Baysan1, Mustafa Ince2, Sukriye Bosgelmez2, Serkan Bilgic1, Betul Aslan1, Atila Erol1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 13
First Page: 92
Last Page: 103
Publisher ID: CPEMH-13-92
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901713010092
Article History:
Received Date: 07/12/2016Revision Received Date: 24/05/2017
Acceptance Date: 22/06/2017
Electronic publication date: 11/08/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
This study investigates the antipsychotic use patterns of patients with schizophrenia and its correlations in their daily drug use patterns.
Methods:
Patients with schizophrenia who have regular records at two different community counselling centres (CCS) were included in the study. Information about their medications and sociodemographic data was recorded through face-to-face interviews and supporting information about their drug use patterns was obtained from their relatives/caregivers/nurse. The Clinical Global Impression Scale (severity of illness) and the General Assessment of Functionality scales were also administered.
Results:
Patients with schizophrenia used 2.0 ± 0.81 antipsychotics daily and 3.52 ± 2.55 pills (1–18). Seventy-one percent of the patients used two or more kinds of psychotropic drugs. The most frequently used antipsychotics were quetiapine, a second generation antipsychotic, and haloperidol, a typical antipsychotic. Clinical severity, regular visits to a CCS and use of depot antipsychotics were independent predictors for polypharmacy.
Conclusion:
The rate of polypharmacy use is high in Turkey. There are multiple risk factors related with polipharmacy. New studies should focus risk factors for preventing polypharmacy.
