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Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain

BACKGROUND: Spain as multiple other countries has been experiencing an increasing and sustained trend in the use of psychotropic medications since the mid 90s. Recent studies show public health measures implemented to control SARS-Cov2, such as mobility restrictions and the shutdown of nonessential...

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Autores principales: García, María Luisa Nicieza, Martínez, Paula Fernández, Bretón, Eva Fernández, Martínez Alfonso, Marta M., Gil, Patricio Suárez
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36918825
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15360-0
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author García, María Luisa Nicieza
Martínez, Paula Fernández
Bretón, Eva Fernández
Martínez Alfonso, Marta M.
Gil, Patricio Suárez
author_facet García, María Luisa Nicieza
Martínez, Paula Fernández
Bretón, Eva Fernández
Martínez Alfonso, Marta M.
Gil, Patricio Suárez
author_sort García, María Luisa Nicieza
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Spain as multiple other countries has been experiencing an increasing and sustained trend in the use of psychotropic medications since the mid 90s. Recent studies show public health measures implemented to control SARS-Cov2, such as mobility restrictions and the shutdown of nonessential activities increased mental suffering, even contributing to a higher number of anxiety, depression and insomnia disorders that could lead to an increase in the consumption of psychotropics. The aims were: 1) Evaluate the temporal trend in psychotropic consumption by pharmacological subgroup, sex, and age group 2) Estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the use of psychotropic drugs. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study, retrieving all prescriptions of anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, and antidepressants dispensed in pharmacies of Asturias (Northern Spain) for Primary Care patients for the period 2018–2021. We presented the data expressed in Daily Defined Doses (DDDs) for 1000 persons/day (DHD). To estimate changes in DHDs by year and age group we conducted two multiple linear regressions (one for males and one for females) for every pharmacological subgroup studied. Changes were considered statistically significant when the regression coefficient was p < 0.05. We used the Software R 4.1.0. RESULTS: For the studied period, the highest DHDs are for antidepressants, although all of the subgroups experienced an increase in consumption rates. Women consumed more psychotropic drugs than men. In 2021, 372 out of every 1000 women were taking daily 1 DDD of these drugs versus 184 out of every 1000 men. Consumption rates for all psychotropic drugs progressively increases with age. Conversely, the biggest increases in consumption were among the youngest age groups (0–14 and 15–29 years) for women, while for men there is more variability. The regression models suggest an upward trend in psychotropic consumption during all the period, especially remarkable from 2020, for both genders and all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: - The consumption of psychotropic drugs has gradually increased over the last 4 years, with a significant boost starting in 2020 for both sexes, matching the start of the SARS-COV2 pandemic and the implementation of strict Public Health measures to contain it. - The increase observed on children and adolescents is a matter of concern.
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spelling pubmed-100144112023-03-15 Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain García, María Luisa Nicieza Martínez, Paula Fernández Bretón, Eva Fernández Martínez Alfonso, Marta M. Gil, Patricio Suárez BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Spain as multiple other countries has been experiencing an increasing and sustained trend in the use of psychotropic medications since the mid 90s. Recent studies show public health measures implemented to control SARS-Cov2, such as mobility restrictions and the shutdown of nonessential activities increased mental suffering, even contributing to a higher number of anxiety, depression and insomnia disorders that could lead to an increase in the consumption of psychotropics. The aims were: 1) Evaluate the temporal trend in psychotropic consumption by pharmacological subgroup, sex, and age group 2) Estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the use of psychotropic drugs. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study, retrieving all prescriptions of anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, and antidepressants dispensed in pharmacies of Asturias (Northern Spain) for Primary Care patients for the period 2018–2021. We presented the data expressed in Daily Defined Doses (DDDs) for 1000 persons/day (DHD). To estimate changes in DHDs by year and age group we conducted two multiple linear regressions (one for males and one for females) for every pharmacological subgroup studied. Changes were considered statistically significant when the regression coefficient was p < 0.05. We used the Software R 4.1.0. RESULTS: For the studied period, the highest DHDs are for antidepressants, although all of the subgroups experienced an increase in consumption rates. Women consumed more psychotropic drugs than men. In 2021, 372 out of every 1000 women were taking daily 1 DDD of these drugs versus 184 out of every 1000 men. Consumption rates for all psychotropic drugs progressively increases with age. Conversely, the biggest increases in consumption were among the youngest age groups (0–14 and 15–29 years) for women, while for men there is more variability. The regression models suggest an upward trend in psychotropic consumption during all the period, especially remarkable from 2020, for both genders and all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: - The consumption of psychotropic drugs has gradually increased over the last 4 years, with a significant boost starting in 2020 for both sexes, matching the start of the SARS-COV2 pandemic and the implementation of strict Public Health measures to contain it. - The increase observed on children and adolescents is a matter of concern. BioMed Central 2023-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10014411/ /pubmed/36918825 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15360-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
García, María Luisa Nicieza
Martínez, Paula Fernández
Bretón, Eva Fernández
Martínez Alfonso, Marta M.
Gil, Patricio Suárez
Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title_full Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title_fullStr Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title_full_unstemmed Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title_short Psychotropic consumption before and during COVID-19 in Asturias, Spain
title_sort psychotropic consumption before and during covid-19 in asturias, spain
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36918825
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15360-0
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