Worldwide antipsychotic drug search intensities: pharmacoepidemological estimations based on Google Trends data

Prescription patterns of antipsychotic drugs (APDs) are typically sourced from country-specific data. In this study, a digital pharmacoepidemiological approach was used to investigate APD preferences globally. Publicly available data on worldwide web search intensities in Google for 19 typical and 22 atypical APDs were temporally and spatially normalized and correlated with reported prescription data. The results demonstrated an increasing global preference for atypical over typical APDs since 2007, with quetiapine, olanzapine, risperidone, and aripiprazole showing the largest search intensities in 2020. Cross-sectional analysis of 122 countries in 2020 showed pronounced differences in atypical/typical APD preferences that correlated with gross domestic product per capita. In conclusion, the investigation provides temporal and spatial assessments of global APD preferences and shows a trend towards atypical APDs, although with a relative preference for typical APDs in low-income countries. Similar data-sourcing methodologies allow for prospective studies of other prescription drugs.