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Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital

AIMS: This cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiologic study examined the prevalence of polypharmacy and psychotropic polypharmacy among inpatients in a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Belgium. METHODS: Current prescriptions of all inpatients suffering from mental disorders were extracted from the hospit...

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Autores principales: Govaerts, Jeroen, Boeyckens, Julie, Lammens, Astrid, Gilis, Annelies, Bouckaert, Filip, De Hert, Marc, De Lepeleire, Jan, Stubbs, Brendon, Desplenter, Franciska
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985946/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33796267
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20451253211000610
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author Govaerts, Jeroen
Boeyckens, Julie
Lammens, Astrid
Gilis, Annelies
Bouckaert, Filip
De Hert, Marc
De Lepeleire, Jan
Stubbs, Brendon
Desplenter, Franciska
author_facet Govaerts, Jeroen
Boeyckens, Julie
Lammens, Astrid
Gilis, Annelies
Bouckaert, Filip
De Hert, Marc
De Lepeleire, Jan
Stubbs, Brendon
Desplenter, Franciska
author_sort Govaerts, Jeroen
collection PubMed
description AIMS: This cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiologic study examined the prevalence of polypharmacy and psychotropic polypharmacy among inpatients in a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Belgium. METHODS: Current prescriptions of all inpatients suffering from mental disorders were extracted from the hospital Computerized Physician Order Entry. Two methods were used to examine definitive polypharmacy (defined as the concomitant use of at least five medicines): number of medicines per active component and per prescription. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant use of at least two psychotropic medicines, based on the first counting, i.e., per active component. RESULTS: In 292 included patients, the prevalence of definitive polypharmacy was 65.8%, with a mean number of 6.8 ± 4.2 medicines per patient. The most prevalent medicines were related to the central nervous system (55.7%), followed by medicines related to the gastro-intestinal (17.6%) and cardiovascular (9.4%) systems. A prevalence of psychotropic polypharmacy of 78.1% was observed, with a mean of 3.0 ± 1.7 psychotropic medicines per patient. Psychotropic polypharmacy was classified in same-class (71.5%), multi-class (82.5%), augmentation (20.6%), and adjuvant (35.5%) polypharmacy. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with previous reports of highly prevalent polypharmacy in patients with mental disorders. Although, in some cases, polypharmacy can be an important part of good clinical practice, the high prevalence of both polypharmacy and psychotropic polypharmacy emphasizes that attention must be paid to the potentially associated risks. Consensus on the definition and method of determination of polypharmacy is needed to support further research.
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spelling pubmed-79859462021-03-31 Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital Govaerts, Jeroen Boeyckens, Julie Lammens, Astrid Gilis, Annelies Bouckaert, Filip De Hert, Marc De Lepeleire, Jan Stubbs, Brendon Desplenter, Franciska Ther Adv Psychopharmacol Original Research AIMS: This cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiologic study examined the prevalence of polypharmacy and psychotropic polypharmacy among inpatients in a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Belgium. METHODS: Current prescriptions of all inpatients suffering from mental disorders were extracted from the hospital Computerized Physician Order Entry. Two methods were used to examine definitive polypharmacy (defined as the concomitant use of at least five medicines): number of medicines per active component and per prescription. Psychotropic polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant use of at least two psychotropic medicines, based on the first counting, i.e., per active component. RESULTS: In 292 included patients, the prevalence of definitive polypharmacy was 65.8%, with a mean number of 6.8 ± 4.2 medicines per patient. The most prevalent medicines were related to the central nervous system (55.7%), followed by medicines related to the gastro-intestinal (17.6%) and cardiovascular (9.4%) systems. A prevalence of psychotropic polypharmacy of 78.1% was observed, with a mean of 3.0 ± 1.7 psychotropic medicines per patient. Psychotropic polypharmacy was classified in same-class (71.5%), multi-class (82.5%), augmentation (20.6%), and adjuvant (35.5%) polypharmacy. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with previous reports of highly prevalent polypharmacy in patients with mental disorders. Although, in some cases, polypharmacy can be an important part of good clinical practice, the high prevalence of both polypharmacy and psychotropic polypharmacy emphasizes that attention must be paid to the potentially associated risks. Consensus on the definition and method of determination of polypharmacy is needed to support further research. SAGE Publications 2021-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7985946/ /pubmed/33796267 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20451253211000610 Text en © The Author(s), 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Govaerts, Jeroen
Boeyckens, Julie
Lammens, Astrid
Gilis, Annelies
Bouckaert, Filip
De Hert, Marc
De Lepeleire, Jan
Stubbs, Brendon
Desplenter, Franciska
Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title_full Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title_fullStr Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title_full_unstemmed Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title_short Defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
title_sort defining polypharmacy: in search of a more comprehensive determination method applied in a tertiary psychiatric hospital
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985946/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33796267
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20451253211000610
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