Patterns of Psychotropic Drug Use in a Spanish Rural Community

Abstract

Psychotropic drug use was investigated using a two-stage survey of a random sample of persons aged 17 and over from a rural Spanish community. It was found that 6.9%, 11.8% and 25.1% of the population were consuming psychotropic, analgesic and somatic medicines respectively. Women presented a higher rate of psychotropic use than men (prevalence for women 10.7%, for men 2.6%). This female predominance was found to be significantly related to sociodemographic and medical factors. Psychotropic use was also associated with the physical health of the respondent. The coexistence of physical and mental illness generated an increase of consumption, whereas the absence of both types of illness was associated with a very low rate. The rates for physical and for mental illness alone were intermediate and were almost equal.

Psychotropic Prescription Use by Community‐Dwelling Elderly in the United States

“…According to the MEPS, 19% of community‐dwelling elderly used a psychotropic agent. This is slightly higher than has been reported in U.S. samples of community‐dwelling elderly (11.4–15.1%) 4,5 but within the range reported internationally (10.4–39.0%) 6,7 . The variations reported may be due to national variations in prescription medication classification, definition of psychotropic agents, data collection methods, regional nature of the samples, type of sample selected , and the age used to define the elderly sample.…”

“…This is slightly higher than has been reported in U.S. samples of communitydwelling elderly (11.4-15.1%) 4,5 but within the range reported internationally (10.4-39.0%). 6,7 The variations reported may be due to national variations in prescription medication classification, definition of psychotropic agents, data collection methods, regional nature of the samples, type of sample selected , and the age used to define the elderly sample. Antidepressants were taken by 9.1% of this elderly sample, compared with previously reported antidepressant use in the United States that has ranged from 2.0% to 11.0% of community elderly between 1982 and 1997.…”

“…The international literature yields more information, but it is also limited in scope. Psychotropic medication use among the elderly has been reported to range from 10.4% in Spain 6 to 39% in Australia 7 …”

Current benzodiazepine issues

“…Recent epidemiologic studies have lent support to earlier findings, from national household surveys in the United States (Mellinger et al 1978(Mellinger et al , 1984a, that actual use of benzodiazepines is generally appropriate. Community surveys in the United States (Swartz et al 1991) and Western Europe (Fichter et al 1989;Pakesch et al 1989;Vazquez-Barquero et al 1989) have found significant positive correlations between benzodiazepine use and psychiatric disturbance as measured using standard rating instruments. Among patients of general practices, those who had receipted prescriptions for benzodiazepines scored significantly higher on such ratings than matched controls who had not received such prescriptions (Salinsky and Dore 1987;Gen6e-Badia et al 1988) Other studies of general medical patients in the United States (Haskell et al 1986;Ried et al 1990) and Western Europe (Magni et al 1986;Bellantuono et al 1989;Antonijoan et al 1990) also showed that benzodiazepine users were distinguished by significant psychiatric morbidity; some of these (Magni et aI.…”

Psychotropic drug use in non-psychiatric departments of three European university hospitals

“…Studies have been carried out mainly on local or national levels, showing major qualitative and quantitative differences within countries (2,6,7). Previously, we have reported a low overall use of antidepressants and neuroleptics in Estonia and Spain compared with the Nordic countries (8,9).…”