Abstract
Rationale
The use of psychotropic drugs in the paediatric population has not been the subject of many studies, due to the fact that this population is generally not included in clinical trials and these drugs are not authorized for use on minors.
Objectives
This study aims to provide an accurate description of psychotropic drug use in children and adolescents in the North of Europe and Catalonia.
Methods
Data from 2008 to 2017 on psychotropic drug consumption in children and adolescents were retrieved from the databases of Catalonia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Psychotropic drugs were divided into antipsychotics, anxiolytics (also hypnotics and sedatives), antidepressants and psychostimulants. Data were stratified by group of age (0–4, 5–9, 10–14 and 15–19/15–17 for Denmark and Catalonia) and sex.
Results
Overall, the group of anxiolytics shows the highest consumption and the group of antipsychotics the lowest. In 2017, Sweden was the country with the highest consumption of psychotropic drugs (6.67‰) and has the highest increase in consumption (152.8%), and Denmark has the lowest consumption for all groups (3.13‰). Catalonia shows a decrease in psychotropic drugs (−15.9%). Girls consume more than twice as many antidepressants as boys while the opposite is true for psychostimulants. Risperidone and quetiapine are among the most consumed antipsychotics in the Nordic countries, whereas in Catalonia they are risperidone and aripiprazole. Among antidepressants, sertraline is the most consumed. No differences are found among the psychostimulants.
Conclusions
Psychotropic consumption in younger populations is increasing, although there are differences between the countries as far as which drugs are used. Nordic countries show a higher prevalence of use than Catalonia. Psychotropic drug consumption increases with age, except for psychostimulants, which have the highest utilization rate among 10–14-year-olds.
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Data availability
In accordance with current European and Spanish organic law, the Catalan data used in this study is available only to the researchers participating in this project. Therefore, we are not allowed to distribute or make the data publicly available to other parties. However, researchers from public institutions can request data from the SIDIAP if those requests comply with certain requirements. Further information is available online (https://www.sidiap.org/index.php/menu-solicitudes-en/application-proccedure).
Data from Scandinavian countries can be accessed on their webpages as explained in the Methods section.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Eduardo Hermosilla and Darío García from SIDIAP for the data extraction and management.
Funding
This project carried out with the support of the Department of Health of Catalonia, with a grant awarded by the 2018 edition of the Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation in Health (PERIS) 2016–2020, modality research projects oriented to primary care, with the file code SLT006/17/00309.
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AGL, AGS, CVU and RMP were involved in the protocol design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of the results and final discussion of the project. OPV contributed to the design, data analysis and reviewed the final version of the manuscript. AGC, LGG, XBP and ARQ contributed to the protocol design and interpretation of the results as well to the discussion; they revised the work critically and reviewed the final version of the manuscript. All the authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
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The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article:
L.G.G. received travel awards for taking part in psychiatric meetings from Shire in the last 3 years.
J.A.R.-Q. was on the speakers’ bureau and/or acted as a consultant for Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Shire, Lundbeck, Almirall, Braingaze, Sincrolab and Rubió in the last 5 years. He also received travel awards (air tickets + hotel) for taking part in psychiatric meetings from Janssen-Cilag, Rubió, Shire and Eli Lilly. The Department of Psychiatry chaired by him received unrestricted educational and research support from the following pharmaceutical companies in the last 5 years: Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, Janssen-Cilag, Actelion, Shire, Ferrer and Rubió.
The rest of the authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.
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Gómez-Lumbreras, A., Garcia Sangenis, A., Prat Vallverdú, O. et al. Psychotropic use in children and adolescents in Scandinavia and Catalonia: a 10-year population-based study. Psychopharmacology 238, 1805–1815 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05809-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05809-8