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Pharmacotherapy of 1,044 inpatients with posttraumatic stress disorder: current status and trends in German-speaking countries
- Source :
- European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric disorder with limited approved pharmacological treatment options and high symptom burden. Therefore, real-life prescription patterns may differ from guideline recommendations, especially in psychiatric inpatient settings. The European Drug Safety Program in Psychiatry (“Arzneimittelsicherheit in der Psychiatrie”, AMSP) collects inpatients’ prescription rates cross-sectionally twice a year in German-speaking psychiatric hospitals. For this study, the AMSP database was screened for psychiatric inpatients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD between 2001 and 2017. N = 1,044 patients with a primary diagnosis of PTSD were identified with 89.9% taking psychotropics. The average prescription rate was 2.4 (standard deviation: 1.5) psychotropics per patient with high rates of antidepressant drugs (72.0%), antipsychotics drugs (58.4%) and tranquilizing drugs (29.3%). The presence of psychiatric comorbidities was associated with higher rates of psychotropic drug use. The most often prescribed substances were quetiapine (24.1% of all patients), lorazepam (18.1%) and mirtazapine (15.0%). The use of drugs approved for PTSD was low (sertraline 11.1%; paroxetine 3.7%). Prescription rates of second-generation antipsychotic drugs increased, while the use of tranquilizing drugs declined over the years. High prescription rates and extensive use of sedative medication suggest a symptom-driven prescription (e.g., hyperarousal, insomnia) that can only be explained to a minor extent by existing comorbidities. The observed discrepancy with existing guidelines underlines the need for effective pharmacological and psychological treatment options in psychiatric inpatient settings.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
medicine.medical_treatment
Mirtazapine
Guideline
Drug Prescriptions
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Pharmacotherapy
Germany
medicine
Humans
Pharmacology (medical)
Medical prescription
Psychiatry
Antipsychotic
Biological Psychiatry
Psychotropic Drugs
Original Paper
Sertraline
AMSP
business.industry
Posttraumatic stress disorder
PTSD
General Medicine
Paroxetine
Antidepressive Agents
030227 psychiatry
Hospitalization
Psychiatry and Mental health
Tranquilizing Agents
Antidepressant
Quetiapine
business
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Antipsychotic Agents
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14338491 and 09401334
- Volume :
- 271
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....69971c13377d7e59183aa53879f343da