Analysis of Antipsychotic Drug Use Patterns and Safety in Patients With Bipolar Disorder

To investigate the pattern of antipsychotic drug use and safety in patients with bipolar disorder (BD).

A retrospective analysis was conducted using a convenience sampling method to collect medical records of 150 BD patients who attended our psychiatric outpatient clinic from July to December 2023. The treatment and follow-up period lasted for 12 months. Based on the use of antipsychotics during the follow-up period, patients were categorized into three subgroups: typical antipsychotics only atypical antipsychotics only, and concurrent use of both antipsychotics. Their medication use, adverse effects, and specific observation indicators including the number of antipsychotics used, the percentage of anticholinergics used, the incidence of somatic discomfort, cognitive impairment, memory loss, and decreased attention were compared.

There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of gender, age, whether they worked or not, and comorbidities (p>0.05); the difference between the three groups was statistically significant in terms of the percentage of the number of antipsychotics used and the percentage of anticholinergics used (p<0.001), and there was no statistically significant difference in terms of the percentage of other adjunctive psychotropic medications or the percentage of the use of traditional Chinese medicines (p>0.05); during the follow-up period, all three groups of patients had symptoms of somatic discomfort, cognitive impairment, memory loss, and decreased attention, but the difference in their incidence was not statistically significant (p>0.05); moreover, none of the three groups of patients had impairments of liver and kidney functions during the follow-up period.

Antipsychotics play a crucial role in treating BD patients. This study provides insights into optimizing treatment strategies by highlighting the importance of considering both safety and efficacy when prescribing antipsychotics.