• J Clin Psychiatry · Nov 2010

    Exploring regional variation in antipsychotic coprescribing practice: a Danish questionnaire survey.

    • Lone Baandrup, Peter Allerup, Merete Nordentoft, Henrik Lublin, and Birte Y Glenthoj.
    • Center for Neuropsychiatric Schizophrenia Research, Copenhagen University Hospital, Psychiatric Center Glostrup, Nordre Ringvej 29-67, DK-2600 Glostrup, Denmark. lone.baandrup@cnsr.dk
    • J Clin Psychiatry. 2010 Nov 1;71(11):1457-64.

    ObjectiveThe pharmacologic treatment of schizophrenia is characterized by excessive use of antipsychotic polypharmacy, which reflects a gap between evidence and practice. The aim of the present study was to investigate regional differences in treatment setting characteristics and in physician and nurse attitudes toward antipsychotic polypharmacy and clinical guidelines.MethodCross-sectional postal questionnaire survey directed to physicians and nurses at 2 pairs of treatment settings in Denmark, characterized by low and high prevalence of antipsychotic polypharmacy, respectively. The questionnaire investigation was conducted during November 2007 to February 2008.ResultsSatisfactory response rates were obtained (physicians: 93%; nurses: 87%). The treatment settings with low use of antipsychotic polypharmacy were characterized by raised knowledge/awareness of local antipsychotic treatment guidelines (P = .02 for physicians; P = .01 for nurses). Among physicians, these settings were also characterized by an elevated confidence in these guidelines (P = .01), frequent local educational activities (P < .0001), and increased recent involvement in research (P = .01). Among nurses, a perception of an overwhelming work load (P = .01) and time pressure (P = .003) was significantly more prevalent in treatment settings with high rates of antipsychotic coprescribing, as was the belief in the benefit of antipsychotic polypharmacy augmentation (P = .001).ConclusionAlbeit no causal relationships can be inferred from this cross-sectional observational study, we recommend the furtherance of a treatment environment characterized by easily accessible clinical guidelines, frequent academic activities, and an unruffled atmosphere.© Copyright 2010 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…