Prevalence of medication use for somatic disease in institutionalized psychiatric patients

Psychiatric patients may use medications for their psychiatric condition as well as for treating concurrent somatic diseases or somatic side effects of psychiatric medicines. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of use of medication for somatic disease in institutionalized psychiatric patients and changes therein during 2006-2010.

A cross-sectional study in institutionalized psychiatric patients was performed. Medication use for somatic disease on 10 time points between 2006 and 2010 was investigated and stratified by gender, age, psychiatric medication class and the number of different psychiatric medication classes used.

The prevalence of use of medication for somatic disease increased from 67.5% in 2006 to 76.9% in 2010. The median number of medications used for somatic disease per patient was 3 between 2006 and 2010. Approximately one-third (34.1%) of the patients received ≥ 3 medications intended for treating somatic disease in 2006 which increased to 46.3% in 2010. In 2010, the prevalence of medication use for somatic disease was highest for analgesics and antirheumatics (34.0%), acid and bowel related medication (25.6%) and anticholinergic medication (24.2%). Medication use for somatic disease was highest in patients ≥ 60 years (95.3%), patients treated with more than one psychiatric medication class (87.5%) and patients treated with mood stabilizers (90.6%).

Somatic medication use is high in institutionalized psychiatric patients. More attention is needed for co-use of psychiatric and somatic medications to prevent side effects, drug-disease or drug-drug interactions. More research is needed to investigate if somatic care is optimal in institutionalized psychiatric patients.