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A study of the psychotropic prescriptions of people attending an addiction service in England

A study of the psychotropic prescriptions of people attending an addiction service in England Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the prescribed psychotropic medications taken by newly referred people with a range of substance use disorders SUD who attend a specialist community addiction service.Designmethodologyapproach Anonymised data on newly referred people n1,537 with SUD attending a specialist community addiction service for their first episode of treatment between August 2007 and July 2010 were obtained from the database of the service. Data were cleaned and the percentage of people taking prescribed psychotropic medications at their first episode of treatment was calculated.Findings More than half 56.1 percent of people attending the service were taking prescribed antidepressants and anxiolytics at their first episode of treatment whilst 15.2 percent of people were taking prescribed antipsychotics. Alcohol and opioids were the primary referral substances for 77.4 percent and 15.2 percent of people respectively. People referred for other substances cannabis, stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, solvents and polydrug use made up the remaining 7.5 percent and had the highest percentage of prescribed psychotropics antipsychotics47 percent, antidepressants and anxiolytics64.3 percent compared to those referred for alcohol and opioids p<0.0005.Originalityvalue To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study of psychotropic prescribing among people with a range of SUD in the UK. The high prevalence of psychotropic prescribing raises questions about the appropriateness of these prescriptions and calls for scrutiny of prescribing practice in this group of people. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Advances in Dual Diagnosis Emerald Publishing

A study of the psychotropic prescriptions of people attending an addiction service in England

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References (41)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1757-0972
DOI
10.1108/ADD-03-2013-0005
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the prescribed psychotropic medications taken by newly referred people with a range of substance use disorders SUD who attend a specialist community addiction service.Designmethodologyapproach Anonymised data on newly referred people n1,537 with SUD attending a specialist community addiction service for their first episode of treatment between August 2007 and July 2010 were obtained from the database of the service. Data were cleaned and the percentage of people taking prescribed psychotropic medications at their first episode of treatment was calculated.Findings More than half 56.1 percent of people attending the service were taking prescribed antidepressants and anxiolytics at their first episode of treatment whilst 15.2 percent of people were taking prescribed antipsychotics. Alcohol and opioids were the primary referral substances for 77.4 percent and 15.2 percent of people respectively. People referred for other substances cannabis, stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, solvents and polydrug use made up the remaining 7.5 percent and had the highest percentage of prescribed psychotropics antipsychotics47 percent, antidepressants and anxiolytics64.3 percent compared to those referred for alcohol and opioids p<0.0005.Originalityvalue To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study of psychotropic prescribing among people with a range of SUD in the UK. The high prevalence of psychotropic prescribing raises questions about the appropriateness of these prescriptions and calls for scrutiny of prescribing practice in this group of people.

Journal

Advances in Dual Diagnosis – Emerald Publishing

Published: May 17, 2013

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