Trends in psychiatric disorders prevalence and prescription patterns of children in Alberta, Canada

Purpose To describe the trends in the prevalence and incidence of children with psychiatric disorders, the types of medication prescribed, and the type of physician providing the prescriptions. Method This retrospective study linked six population-based administrative databases (2008–2015) in Albert...

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Published inSocial Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Vol. 54; no. 12; pp. 1565 - 1574
Main Authors Leung, Brenda M Y, Kellett, Peter, Youngson, Erik, Hathaway, Josh, Santana, Maria
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2019
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
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Summary:Purpose To describe the trends in the prevalence and incidence of children with psychiatric disorders, the types of medication prescribed, and the type of physician providing the prescriptions. Method This retrospective study linked six population-based administrative databases (2008–2015) in Alberta, Canada. Results The prevalence of paediatric psychiatric disorders increased from 12.6 per 100 population in 2008 to 15.0 per 100 population in 2015, while the incidence rate increased from 2.0 per 100 population to 2.2 per 100 population in the same period. The proportion of patients dispensed any psychiatric medication increased from 21.4% in 2008 to 28.2% in 2015. Over the same period, dispensations for antidepressants increased from 7.0% to 11.2% and stimulants to treat ADHD, from 11.9% to 15.9%. For antidepressants, general practitioners (GPs) wrote the highest proportion of prescriptions (44.3% in 2011–48.1% in 2015), while paediatricians wrote the lowest proportion (8.7% in 2011–11.0% in 2015) and the proportion by psychiatrists decreased from 33.4% in 2011 to 27.2% in 2015. For stimulants to treat ADHD, paediatricians were the most frequent prescribers (36.9% in 2011–39.3% in 2015) followed by GPs as the second most frequent (33.1% in 2011–33.5% in 2015), while psychiatrists were the least likely to prescribe stimulants for ADHD. Conclusion The increasing trend of psychiatric diagnoses and medication prescriptions in the paediatric population is evident using population-based administrative databases. The lack of safety and adverse consequences of medication use in this cohort warrants additional monitoring data.
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ISSN:0933-7954
1433-9285
DOI:10.1007/s00127-019-01714-w