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A Retrospective Survey on Antipsychotic Polypharmacy in Schizophrenic Patients
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| Author:
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JENI RAJU, GOPIKA S PILLAI, DR. ARUN K, MEENU VIJAYAN
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| Abstract:
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The practice of antipsychotic polypharmacy is widely used in now a days without a clear evidence of its safety and efficacy. Till now, there is no effective study based on combination use of antipsychotic drugs. The primary goal of our study is to find out the proportion and pattern of antipsychotic polypharmacy prescriptions and determine the possible risk among schizophrenic patients. However, antipsychotic polypharmacy has its own benefits in treatment resistant schizophrenic cases. The proper way of practicing polypharmacy is missing in clinical settings. Lack of information regarding benefits, safety, risk and efficacy is a major concern. A retrospective study was enrolling 253 patients conducted at department of psychiatry and behavior medicine at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences &Research center. The patients were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The ADR’s associated with antipsychotic therapy were studied and causality was assessed using Naranjo causality assessment scale. Severity of ADR’s was assessed with Hartwig’s severity assessment scale. The study results indicate that the incidence of polypharmacy was great and potential ADR’s were increasing with polytherapy. The study also identified that various risk factors contributed to this polypharmacy approach. As a result of the wide practice of polypharmacy, the occurrence of ADR associated with antipsychotic polypharmacy were found to be more and was statistically significant with p value (0.001).The frequency of antipsychotic polypharmacy prescription show variation between different countries, suggesting that various factors like age, sex, family history, smoking, positive symptoms plays a major role in determining antipsychotic polypharmacy use in patients.
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| Keyword:
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antipsychotic polypharmacy, schizophrenic patients, smoking
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| EOI:
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-
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| DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.31838/ijpr/2020.SP1.081
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| Download:
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