Publication:

Antipsychotic medication prescribing trends in a tertiary care hospital

Background In psychiatric practice, antipsychotic drugs are widely used group of drugs. Numbers of drugs are available in this group with diverse type of mechanisms and efficacy/safety profile. The objective for the study was to identify the prescription pattern of antipsychotic drugs in the centre for determination of current trends.

Methods The retrospective study was conducted at NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Nagpur, Hospital, Maharashtra, India case record files of the department of psychiatry for the year 2014-2015 were analysed for a total of 300 cases. Antipsychotic drugs received by the patient for psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, mood disorders (major depression or mania) with psychotic features, substance induced psychosis, dementia and delirium with psychotic features, brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorders etc. were noted and analysed for prescription pattern of antipsychotic drugs.

Results Out of 300 cases that were analysed, olanzapine was the most commonly used antipsychotic drug i.e. in 51% of patients followed by resperidone in 23% and quetiapine in 13% of patients. Other drugs used were aripiprazole in 6%, clozapine in in 5.3%, iloperidine in 5%, trifluperazine in 2% and triflupromazine in 1% of patients. Injectable haloperidol and the anticholinergic promethazine were used as on required basis.

Conclusions Atypical antipsychotics are more commonly used as compared to the typical ones. Atypical antipsychotics like olanzapine, resperidone and quetiapine are preferred because of their lesser propensity to cause extrapyramidal adverse effects and they also helps in improving negative symptoms of schizophrenia.