Prescribing Patterns in Child and Adolescent Outpatient Psychiatry: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Prescriptions in the First Year.

OBJECTIVE

Recently, excessive and off-label prescribing of psychotropic drugs for children and adolescents have become a problem. Child and adolescent psychiatric patients receive treatment in many departments and department-specific psychotropic drug use has not been analyzed. We surveyed prescriptions for child and adolescent psychiatric outpatients during their first year of treatment.

METHODS

The participants were 302 patients, 15 years or younger, who made their first visit to the outpatient psychiatry department of Tokai University Hospital from September 1, 2015 to September 1, 2016. Prescription details and patient profiles were retrospectively investigated using medical records.

RESULTS

Medication was prescribed for 20.9% of patients (63/302) with the prescription rate increasing with age. Psychotropic drugs were prescribed for 15.6% of patients (48/302), with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications being most frequently prescribed (20 cases). Other than psychotropic drugs, iron pills (25 cases) and herbal medicines (21 cases) were prescribed frequently.

CONCLUSIONS

The pharmacotherapy and psychotropic prescription rates were low. This may be due to the use of non-pharmacological interventions and the lack of inpatient facilities. With the publication of guidelines for pharmacotherapy in child psychiatry in Japan, measuring the patterns of psychotropic drug prescription in children and adolescents is important, and would make treatment more transparent.