OBJECTIVE To describe and analyze patterns of polypharmacy among psychiatric outpatients in northern Nigeria and identify predictors of psychotropic polypharmacy. METHOD A cross-sectional study, using chart review of new patients at out-patient clinics of two regional psychiatric hospitals in northern Nigeria,measuring rates, patterns and predictors of psychotropic polypharmacy. RESULTS A t...

OBJECTIVE Polypharmacy is widespread in the elderly because of their multiple chronic health problems. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and predictors associated with polypharmacy in a nationally representative sample of Korean elderly individuals. METHODS We used the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service - National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS) data fr...

BACKGROUND This study assesses prevalence and patients characteristics related to polypharmacy in a sample of nursing home residents. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional analysis on 4,023 nursing home residents participating to the Services and Health for Elderly in Long TERm care (SHELTER) project, a study collecting information on residents admitted to 57 nursing home in 8 countries. Dat...

BACKGROUND Polypharmacy is particularly important in older persons as they are more likely to experience adverse events compared to the rest of the population. Despite the relevance, there is a lack of studies on the possible association of patient, prescriber and practice characteristics with polypharmacy. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the rate of polypharmacy among older person...

BACKGROUND Research into which medications contribute to polypharmacy and the variability in these medications across long-term care facilities (LTCFs) has been minimal. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to investigate which medications were more prevalent among residents with polypharmacy and to determine the variability in prescribing of these medications across LTCFs. METHODS This was a cross-...

The purpose of the study was three-fold: (1) to estimate the national trends in antipsychotic (AP) polypharmacy among 6- to 24-year-old patients in the U.S.; (2) to identify frequently used AP agents and mental disorder diagnoses related to AP polypharmacy; and (3) to assess the strength of association between AP polypharmacy and patient/provider characteristics. We used publicly available ambu...

OBJECTIVE To compare the rate of relapse as a function of antipsychotic treatment (monotherapy vs. polypharmacy) in schizophrenic patients over a 2-year period. METHODS Using data from a multicenter cohort study conducted in France, we performed a propensity-adjusted analysis to examine the association between the rate of relapse over a 2-year period and antipsychotic treatment (monotherapy v...

BACKGROUND Multimorbidity and the associated use of multiple medicines (polypharmacy), is common in the older population. Despite this, there is no consensus definition for polypharmacy. A systematic review was conducted to identify and summarise polypharmacy definitions in existing literature. METHODS The reporting of this systematic review conforms to the Preferred Reporting Items for Syste...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to explore antipsychotic medication prescribing practices in a sample of 86,034 patients discharged from state psychiatric inpatient hospitals and to find the prevalence of patients discharged with no antipsychotic medications, on antipsychotic monotherapy, and on antipsychotic polypharmacy. For patients discharged on antipsychotic polypharmacy, the study e...