ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2023
Changes in prescribing of psychotropic vs some physical health medication in primary care through the COVID-19 pandemic in England: a national-level survey.
Article in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- National Prescribing Trends and Cost Analysis of Antidepressants, Anxiolytics, and Hypnotics in England, 2010-2023.Human psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Fluctuations in dispensed out-patient psychotropic medication prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- A quantitative investigation in a territory of Italy on citizens' attitudes towards medicines through the COVID-19 pandemic: the importance of possible indirect effects caused by the pandemic.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe COVID-19 pandemic globally impacted healthcare provision. Prescribing changes in common medications can be used as a marker for new diagnoses. We describe how the prescribing of specific psychotropics was impacted by the pandemic.
methodsPrimary Care Prescribing data for different classes of drugs from March 2017 to February 2022 were considered. To capture the impact during periods of restricted access to health services for new diagnoses/existing conditions, repeat prescriptions/episodic prescribing were included with account taken of historical trends. The pre-pandemic prescriptions issued each month from March 2018 to February 2020 were linearly extrapolated forward to give an expected annual growth (EAG). The monthly average expected prescriptions for the pandemic period (March 2020-February 2022) were compared.
resultsPhysical health medications had lower monthly prescriptions during the pandemic, most markedly for antibiotics - 12.5% (EAG - 1.3%). Bronchodilator prescribing showed a marked increase in the early pandemic months from March 2020 of 5% (EAG 0.1%). Mental health medication prescribing increased above trend for hypnotics/anxiolytics by 0.2% (EAG - 2.3%), while antidepressants fell by - 0.2% (EAG 5.0%), with no net change for antipsychotics (EAG 2.8%), but a temporary increase in antipsychotic prescribing in the early pandemic period. For all the main antidepressants prescribed in England (Sertraline, Mirtazapine, Venlafaxine, Fluoxetine and Citalopram), prescribing actually decreased in the main pandemic period vs historical trend.
conclusionsThe increase in anxiolytic/hypnotic prescribing above trend links to pandemic effects on anxiety/worry. If anything, there was a slight fall in prescribing of the main antidepressants prescribed, which given prevailing circumstances at the time, suggests that access to services may have restricted access to timely assessment.
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