Differences between genders in antipsychotic medication among children and adolescents – patterns in use and underlying mental disorders
Poster A44, Thursday, October 20, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Ragnar Nesvag1,2, Ingeborg Hartz2,3, Jørgen Bramness4, Vidar Hjellvik2, Marte Handal2, Svetlana Skurtveit2,4; 1Department of Psychiatry, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway, 2Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, 3Faculty of Public Health, Hedmark University College, Elverum, Norway, 4Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Antipsychotic drugs have different indications but there is lack of knowledge on the disorders underlying antipsychotic drug use in the pediatric population. We aimed to study prevalence of antipsychotic drug use, type of prescribed drugs and presence of mental disorder diagnoses among 0-18 year old boys and girls in Norway in 2010. Linked data from nationwide health registries on prescription drugs in 2010 (from the Norwegian Prescription Database) and mental disorder diagnoses in 2008-2012 (from the Norwegian Patient Register) were used to study prevalence of antipsychotic drug prescriptions, type of drugs, underlying diagnoses, and distribution of drugs per diagnostic category and gender. A total of 2,008 (0.17%) children and adolescents were prescribed antipsychotic drug during 2010. Of these, 92.4% had at least one mental disorder diagnosis. Risperidone was the most frequently prescribed drug among boys (57.4%) and girls (32.3%) followed by aripiprazole in boys (19.4%) and quetiapine in girls (27.4%). Hyperkinetic (49.9%) and autism-spectrum disorder (27.1%) were the most common mental disorder diagnoses among boys using antipsychotics, and anxiety (41.5%) and depressive disorders (33.6%) were the most common in girls. A schizophrenia-like psychosis was diagnosed in 11.1% of the boys and 18.2% of the girls. More than half of boys who used risperidone or aripiprazole were diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorder. More than half of girls who used quetiapine had a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depressive disorder. The results indicate that in children and adolescents antipsychotic drugs are primarily used for non-psychotic mental disorders such as hyperkinetic, anxiety or depressive disorders.
Topic Area: Epidemiology