What have we learned in the past year? A study on pharmacy purchases of psychiatric drugs from wholesalers in the days prior to the first and second COVID-19 lockdowns in Germany

No study has yet investigated how the second coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown has impacted the consumption of psychiatric medications in Germany. Therefore, the goal of this study was to analyze weekly pharmacy purchases of psychiatric drugs from wholesalers in this country in 2019 and 2020 using data from the IMS RPM® (Regional Pharmaceutical Market) Weekly Database. The outcome was the number of pharmacy purchases of psychiatric drugs per week from wholesalers between Calendar Week 2 and Calendar Week 52 in 2019 and 2020. Calendar Weeks 12 and 51 in 2020 corresponded to the days prior to the first and second German COVID-19 lockdowns, respectively. Descriptively, compared with 2019, the number of weekly pharmacy purchases of psychiatric drugs increased by 32% between Calendar Weeks 2–11 and Calendar Week 12 in 2020, while there was a 9% increase between Calendar Weeks 13–50 and Calendar Week 51 that same year. Overall, the relative increase in the weekly pharmacy purchases of psychiatric drugs from wholesalers was less pronounced before the second COVID-19 lockdown in Germany than before the first. Further studies are warranted to identify factors (e.g., decreases in panic buying) that may have contributed to this decreasing trend.