ArticleInternational journal of psychiatry in medicine2023
Dispensing patterns of mental health medications before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta, Canada: An interrupted time series analysis.
Article in International journal of psychiatry in medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Utilization of mental health services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic - a systematic review and meta-analysis.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trends in Sedative-Hypnotic Prescription Among Insomnia Patients: A Nationwide Cohort Study From 2010 to 2022 in Korea.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Article
- Trends in medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Observational
- Utilization of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics during the COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- Sales trends of psychotropic drugs in the COVID-19 pandemic: A national database study in Brazil.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the general population in all aspects of life. Estimates of mental health medication dispensing in Alberta were investigated to elucidate areas of need within mental health and pharmacy practice during the pandemic.
methodsWe employed an interrupted time series analysis using linear regression models to estimate community and outpatient medication dispensing trends of 46 medications used to treat mental health disorders. Three parameters were examined. The first was the medication dispensing slope before COVID-19. The second was the immediate effect of COVID-19 on dispensing (i.e., the difference in dispensing rate between the month before and after the first case of COVID-19) and the third was the medication dispensing slope during COVID-19.
resultsDispensing rates of 61% (
conclusionInitial increases in dispensing patterns of antidepressants may be attributed to a "stockpiling phenomenon" but the sustained higher levels of dispensing suggest an unfavorable shift in the population's mental health. Monitoring of medication dispensing patterns during COVID-19 may serve as a useful indicator of the population's mental health during the current pandemic and better prepare community pharmacists in future pandemic planning, medication dispensing strategies, and care of chronic medical conditions.
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