Polypharmacy Among Inpatients of a University Psychiatry Clinic: A Retrospective Study

Objective: It has been reported that polypharmacy was frequent and increased lately. In our study, our purpose was to define the prevalence of polypharmacy and the level of polypharmacy according to the specified diagnostic groups. Method: The files of 201 inpatients admitted between January 2010 and January 2011 were evaluated retrospectively. For every patient's last admission, prescribed drugs at that admission, time period of that admission, the number of past admissions and demographic data were evaluated and statistical analysis was performed. Results: In the evaluation of the last admissions of 201 inpatients, it was detected that 145 (72.1%) patients had been given polypharmacy at discharge. Polypharmacy was mostly used in psychotic patients (60%) and number of drugs used per patient was 2.2. Polypharmacy was significantly more frequent in patients living in cities, with a longer hospital stay and in patients with higher number of past admissions. Conclusion: Our finding of high percentage of polypharmacy shows that treatment algorithms are not followed as much as expected. With the development of the evidence based psychiatry, it is necessary to define ratios of benefits and harms while using polypharmacy. Only by this way, questions about if polypharmacy is a suitable approach or if the treatment algorithms can be changed accordingly may be answered.