The second cross-sectional study on antipsychotic drug patterns of schizophrenia in China

Objective To uncover the antipsychotic drug use patterns for treating schizophrenia in China in 2006, and the developing tendency from 2002 to 2006.Methods Based on the investigation in 2002, the same methods and same hospitals were selected, totally 41 hospitals from 10 provinces and cities.The investigation was conducted during 22th to 28th, May, 2006, using the revised self-made modified questionnaire.Results The total number of sample was 5898, including outpatients (46.0%) and inpatients (54.0% ) ( male: female = 51.6%: 47.4% ).The most common clinical characteristics were the personal and social dysfunction.Antipsychotic medication most frequently prescribed was clozapine (31.7%), subsequently were risperidone (30.5%), sulpiride (14.5%), chlorpromazine (10.8%),perphenazine (9.2%), quetiapine (7.2%) and haloperidol (5.8%) .The mean chlorpromazine equivalent dosage was higher in inpatients than outpatients.In all the patients, 75.6% were treated with mono-pharmacy, in which 72.7% with atypical antipsychotics (while 38.3% with typical drugs), and the percentage of patients with depot antipsychotics was 6.2%.24.4% of the patients were treated with 2 or more than 2 types of antipsychotics.The common concomitant medications were anticholinergic agents,benzodiazepine, β-receptor blockade, antidepressants and mood stabilizers, in order to control the adverse effects or augment the efficacy of antipsychotics.Conclusions Atypical drugs are the mainstream to treat schizophrenia in China, the tendency of antipsychotics prescription pattern matches the development of treatment outcome and treatment techniques for schizophrenia. Key words: Schizophrenia;  Sampling studies;  Psychotropic drugs;  Prescription, drug