Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Antipsychotic management in general practice: serial cross-sectional study (2011–2020). |
| Authors: |
Woodall, Alan, Gampel, Alex, Walker, Lauren E, Mair, Frances S, Sheard, Sally, Symon, Pyers, Buchan, Iain |
| Source: |
British Journal of General Practice; Jan2025, Vol. 75 Issue 750, pe68-e79, 12p |
| Subject Terms: |
PEOPLE with mental illness, REPORTING of diseases, MEDICATION reconciliation, HEART metabolism disorders, MENTAL illness |
| Abstract: |
Background: Long-term use of antipsychotics confers increased risk of cardiometabolic disease. Ongoing need should be reviewed regularly by psychiatrists. Aim: To explore trends in antipsychotic management in general practice, and the proportions of patients prescribed antipsychotics receiving psychiatrist review. Design and setting: Serial cross-sectional study using linked general practice and hospital data in Wales (2011–2020). Method: Participants were adults (aged ≥18 years) registered with general practices in Wales. Outcome measures were prevalence of patients receiving ≥6 antipsychotic prescriptions annually, the proportion of patients prescribed antipsychotics receiving annual psychiatrist review, and the proportion of patients prescribed antipsychotics who were registered on the UK serious mental illness, depression, and/or dementia registers, or not on any of these registers. Results: Prevalence of adults prescribed long-term antipsychotics increased from 1.055% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.041 to 1.069) in 2011 to 1.448% (95% CI = 1.432 to 1.464) in 2020. The proportion receiving annual psychiatrist review decreased from 59.6% (95% CI = 58.9 to 60.4) in 2011 to 52.0% (95% CI = 51.4 to 52.7) in 2020. The proportion of overall antipsychotic use prescribed to patients on the serious mental illness register decreased from 50.0% (95% CI = 49.4 to 50.7) in 2011 to 43.6% (95% CI = 43.0 to 44.1) by 2020. Conclusion: Prevalence of long-term antipsychotic use is increasing. More patients are managed by GPs without psychiatrist review and are not on monitored disease registers; they thus may be less likely to undergo cardiometabolic monitoring and miss opportunities to optimise or deprescribe antipsychotics. These trends pose risks for patients and need to be addressed urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
|
Copyright of British Journal of General Practice is the property of Royal College of General Practitioners and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
| Database: |
Complementary Index |
