Changing prescribing patterns in an Irish community mental health service

Medication is an important component of the treatment of many mental illnesses. Very little information is available about the particular medications that are being prescribed by community mental health services and how this has changed over time. We set out to obtain details of psychiatric medications being prescribed by one Irish community mental health service.

All prescribing by the Cluain Mhuire Community Mental Health Service became electronic during 2004. Using Business Intelligence software, we obtained details of all psychiatric medications prescribed from 2005 to 2016. We compared numbers of prescriptions written in the first 6 years (2005-2010) with the following 6 (2011-2016).

Olanzapine was the most commonly prescribed medication throughout but its use declined by one-quarter over the study period. Clozapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole and haloperidol prescribing increased. Prescriptions for mood stabilisers and antidepressants fell by 25%. Sedative prescriptions declined by almost 50%. Absolute numbers of prescriptions written for methylphenidate and pregabalin were small but increased dramatically over the time period.

This community mental health service prescribed less of most psychiatric medications in 2016, than had been the case in 2005. This is despite an increase in the numbers of patients seen over the same period. It is not clear if this pattern is echoed in other services.