More than Half of Patients with Schizophrenia Are Receiving Polypharmacy and Co-Prescription of Anxiolytics in Pakistan —Findings from Research on Asian Prescription Pattern in 2016

作     者：Mazhar Malik Usman Ghani Nariman Awais Nargis Munir Afzal Javed Munir Hamirani Nasar Sayeed Kahn Shu-Yu Yang Liang-Yu Chen Shih-Ku Lin Norman Sartorius Chay-Hoon Tan Mian-Yoon Chong Masaki Shinfuku Sandeep Grover Winston W. Shen Naotaka Shinfuku 

作者机构：Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Rawal Institute of Health Sciences Islamabad Pakistan Pakistan Psychiatric Research Center Fountain House Lahore Pakistan Department of Psychiatry Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi Pakistan Department of Psychiatry Services Hospital Lahore Pakistan Taipei City Hospital and Psychiatric Center Taiwan Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine National Taiwan University Taiwan Department of Psychiatry School of Medicine Taipei Medical University Taiwan Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programs Geneva Switzerland National University of Singapore Singapore Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and School of Medicine Chang Gung University Taiwan Department of Psychiatry Tokyo Medical Center Tokyo Japan Department of Psychiatry Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PIGMER) Chandigah India Departments of Psychiatry Medical Center and College of Medicine Taipei Medical University Taiwan Kobe University School of Medicine Kobe Japan 

出 版 物：《Open Journal of Psychiatry》 (精神病学期刊（英文）)

年 卷 期：2018年第8卷第3期

页      面：199-211页

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100214[医学-肿瘤学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Pakistan Psychotropic Drugs Polypharmacy REAP Schizophrenia 

摘      要：Objective: Little is known about the prescription pattern of psychotropic drugs for patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristic features of psychotropic drug prescriptions for patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan. Methods: Three centers in Pakistan participated in a large scale collaborative study known as Research on Asian Prescription Pattern (REAP). The 2016 REAP survey included centers from 15 countries in Asia and used a unified research protocol. The design of the study was quantitative and of descriptive epidemiology. Analysis was made on the data collected from three centers i.e., Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The data collected in Pakistan were compared with those from other Asian countries. The details of REAP were presented on the homepage of REAP (http://***). Results: From Pakistan, 298 patients were included. Patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan received higher rate of antipsychotic polypharmacy and a higher rate of co-prescription of mood stabilizers and anxiolytics when compared with participants from other South Asian countries (India and Bangladesh). Conclusion: The main findings of the study were that a majority of the patients were prescribed antipsychotic polypharmacy drugs in Pakistan. Insufficient training on the use of psychotropic drugs and a lack of treatment guideline are considered to be the major contributing factors. Further education and training on the proper use of psychotropic drugs are recommended to psychiatrists in Pakistan. The guidelines on pharmacotherapy for patients with schizophrenia should also be developed and promoted in Pakistan.