Patient demographics and psychotropic medication prescribing in Australian general practices: pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic

Getiye Dejenu Kibret; Abbish Kamalakkannan; Judith Thomas; Gorkem Sezgin; Rae-Anne Hardie; Lisa Pont; Precious McGuire; Christopher Pearce; Andrew Georgiou

doi:10.1071/HC23168

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Patient demographics and psychotropic medication prescribing in Australian general practices: pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic

Getiye Dejenu Kibret

¹ ^* , Abbish Kamalakkannan ¹ , Judith Thomas ¹ , Gorkem Sezgin ¹ , Rae-Anne Hardie ¹ , Lisa Pont ² , Precious McGuire ³ , Christopher Pearce ¹ ⁴ , Andrew Georgiou ¹

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

¹ Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia.

² Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.

³ Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, Vic., Australia.

⁴ Aurora Primary Care Research Institute, Vic., Australia.

^* Correspondence to: getiye.kibret@mq.edu.au

Handling Editor: Felicity Goodyear-Smith

Journal of Primary Health Care 16(4) 325-331 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC23168

Submitted: 6 December 2023 Accepted: 31 January 2024 Published: 19 February 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Introduction

Mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in the adult population significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the rates of prescribing psychotropic medications in adults during the COVID-19 period have not been well explored.

Aim

The aim of this study was to examine the association between demographic characteristics and rates of prescribing psychotropic medications to general practice patients during 2018–2022.

Methods

A total of 154 528 general practice patients aged 20 years and above were included in the study. A mixed effects negative binomial regression model was employed and incidence risk ratios (IRRs) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) are presented to measure the association of demographic characteristics with rates of prescribing psychotropic medication.

Results

Over half (56.2%) of study subjects were female and 41.4% were aged between 20 and 39 years. Males had lower prescribing rates of antidepressants (IRR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.97) and hypnotics and sedatives (IRR = 0.97; 95% CI: 0.96, 0.99) than females. People in the age group 60+ years (compared with age group 20–39 years) and those in low and middle socio-economic status (SES) categories (compared with high SES) had higher rates of prescribing psychotropic medication.

Conclusion

Females, people aged 60+ years, and people with low and middle SES had higher prescribing rates of psychotropic medication. A consistent increase in prescribing rates over time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, was observed. It is important that health care planners and policy makers monitor and account for population diversity and equity.

Keywords: antidepressants, anxiolytics, COVID-19, demographic, general practice, prescriptions, primary care, psychotropics.

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