Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Objective: The literature on the prescription change among patients with schizophrenia from real-world setting is scarce. And most of studies investigated only antipsychotic use. Given the polypharmacy is a routine process in clinical practice, we examined the patterns of all psychotropic medications from a psychiatric inpatient unit of university-affiliated hospital. Methods: All admission records at a psychiatric unit of Hanyang University Guri Hospital with discharge diagnoses of schizophrenia during two different five-year time frames (1997-2000 and 2006-2010) were reviewed. We investigated the socio-demographic and clinical data and discharge medications. The data were gathered from a total of 207 patients (95 in 1990ΓΆΒ?Β?s and 112 in 2000ΓΆΒ?Β?s). Results: The frequency in use of atypical anti-psychotics (98.2% vs 62.1%, chi square=44.7, p<0.01), anti-depressants (8.9% vs. 1.1%, chi square=6.3, p<0.05), beta-blockers (33.0% vs. 15.8%, chi square=8.1, p<0.01), and benzodiazepine (41.1% vs. 20.0%, chi square=10.6, p<0.01) were significantly higher in 2000ΓΆΒ?Β?s. Anticholinergic drugs were less likely used in 2000ΓΆΒ?Β?s (58.9% vs. 76.8%, chi square=7.5, p<0.01). We did not find significant differences in the equivalent dose of antipsychotic drugs, the use of mood stabilizers and cholinergic drugs between two time frames. Conclusion: Increased proportion of atypical antipsychotics and decreased use of anti-parkinsonian drugs are in line with literature. And our results show that more diverse classes of psychotic medications are used for schizophrenia in recent years. It is likely that psychiatrists are becoming more conscious of negative symptoms, anxiety, and depression as well as positive symptom of schizophrenia.

Biography

Email: bjisang@naver.com