Use of prescription medication prior to suicide in Norway

Association between Prescribing and Intoxication Rates for Selected Psychotropic Drugs: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Psychotropic prescription drugs are commonly involved in intoxication events. The study's aim was to determine a comparative risk for intoxication in relation to prescribing rates for individual drugs. This was a nationwide observational study in Slovenian adults between 2015 and 2021. Intoxication events with psychotropic drugs were collected from the National Register of intoxications. Dispensing data, expressed in defined daily doses, were provided by the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia. Intoxication/prescribing ratio values were calculated. The correlation between trends in prescribing and intoxication rates was assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. In total, 2640 intoxication cases with psychotropic prescription drugs were registered. Anxiolytics and antipsychotics were the predominant groups. Midazolam, chlormethiazole, clonazepam, sulpiride, and quetiapine demonstrated the highest risk of intoxication, while all antidepressants had a risk several times lower. The best trend correlation was found for the prescribing period of 2 years before the intoxication events. An increase of 1,000,000 defined daily doses prescribed resulted in an increase of fifty intoxication events for antipsychotics, twenty events for antiepileptics, and five events for antidepressants. Intoxication/prescribing ratio calculation allowed for a quantitative comparison of the risk for intoxication in relation to the prescribing rates for psychotropic drugs, providing additional understanding of their toxicoepidemiology.

Creating and evaluating the score to assess overdose: the OD score

BACKGROUND

During disasters (including epidemics such as coronavirus disease 2019), the capacity of emergency departments is exceeded, thereby hindering the administration of appropriate lifesaving measures. Furthermore, the number of overdose patients increases because of the stress overload during emergency situation. The fact that overdose patients are forced to be transported to medical facilities that do not typically treat them is becoming worrisome. Moreover, there is no definitive score for overdose. This study aimed to create a patient-specific scoring system to assess overdose.

METHODS

This was a retrospective single-center study. The evidence-based OD score was evaluated on a scale of 0-15. Further, logistic analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed to evaluate the score.

RESULTS

Overall, 262 patients (including 118 overdose patients) receiving care at the intensive care unit of Japan's Teikyo University Hospital in 2021 were targeted. Regarding the total OD score, ROC analysis revealed a cutoff of 8 (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.980-0.997, sensitivity: 0.95, specificity: 0.95, p < 0.05), which was considered to indicate an overdose. Of the items evaluated in the OD score, the scenario at the location of the patient's discovery (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 16.8, 95% CI: 5.0-255.9, p = 0.002) and recent experience of mental anxiety (AOR: 55.7, 95% CI: 2.8-5399.5, p = 0.03) significantly predicted an overdose in multivariable logistic regression analysis. External validation revealed that the OD score could also identify overdose in patients treated in a cohort from 2022 (average cutoff: 8.6, average AUC: 1.0, p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

The OD score could accurately assess overdose patients. Medical facilities that do not frequently address overdose patients will benefit from the use of this score.

Psychotropic and other medicine use at time of death by suicide: a population-level analysis of linked dispensing and forensic toxicology data

OBJECTIVES

To determine the numbers and types of medicines dispensed around the time of death to people who die by suicide; to compare the medicines recently dispensed and those recorded in post mortem toxicology reports.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS

Analysis of linked National Coronial Information System (NCIS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data from the Australian Suicide Prevention using Health Linked Data (ASHLi) study, a population-based case series study of closed coronial cases for deaths of people in Australia aged ten years or more during 1 July 2013 - 10 October 2019 deemed by coroners to be the result of intentional self-harm.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Proportions of people to whom medicines were dispensed around the time of death, by medicine group, class, and specific medicine; comparison of medicines recently dispensed and those detected by post mortem toxicology.

RESULTS

Toxicology reports were available for 13 541 of 14 206 people who died by suicide (95.3%; 10 246 men, 75.7%); poisoning with medicines contributed to 1163 deaths (8.6%). At least one PBS-subsidised medicine had been dispensed around the time of death to 7998 people (59.1%). For three medicine classes, the proportions of people in whom the medicines were detected post mortem and their death was deemed medicine-related were larger for those without records of recent dispensing than for people for whom they had been dispensed around the time of death: antidepressants (17.7% v 12.0%), anxiolytics (16.3% v 14.8%), and sedatives/hypnotics (24.3% v 16.5%). At least one recently dispensed medicine not detected post mortem was identified for 6208 people (45.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

A considerable proportion of people who died by suicide were not taking psychotropic medicines recently dispensed to them, suggesting non-adherence to pharmacotherapy, and a smaller than expected proportion were using antidepressants. Conversely, medicines that had not recently been dispensed were detected post mortem in many people for whom poisoning with medicines was a contributing factor, suggesting medicine stockpiling.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns on the consumption of anxiolytics, hypnotics and antidepressants according to age groups: a French nationwide study

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated sanitary measures on mental health, especially among adolescents and young adults. Such a context may raise many concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic long-term psychological effects. An analysis of administrative databases could be an alternative and complementary approach to medical interview-based epidemiological surveys to monitor the mental health of the population. We conducted a nationwide study to describe the consumption of anxiolytics, antidepressants and hypnotics during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the five previous years.

METHODS

A historic cohort study was conducted by extracting and analysing data from the French health insurance database between 1 January 2015 and 28 February 2021. Individuals were classified into five age-based classes. Linear regression models were performed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic period on the number of drug consumers, in introducing an interaction term between time and COVID-19 period.

RESULTS

Since March 2020, in all five age groups and all three drug categories studied, the number of patients reimbursed weekly has increased compared to the period from January 2015 to February 2020. The youngest the patients, the more pronounced the magnitude.

CONCLUSIONS

Monitoring the consumption of psychiatric medications could be of great interest as reliable indicators are essential for planning public health strategies. A post-crisis policy including reliable monitoring of mental health must be anticipated.

A pharmacoepidemiological study of the association of suicide reattempt risk with psychotropic drug exposure

INTRODUCTION

Recent pharmacoepidemiological studies have suggested that consumption of certain classes of psychotropic drugs could be considered protective or risk factors for suicidal behaviour. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between the risk of suicide reattempt within 6 and 14 months after a suicide attempt (SA) with the use of different classes of psychotropic drugs, combination pairs and treatment adequacy from inclusion through 6 and 14 months post-SA.

METHOD

A prospective observational cohort of 972 subjects from the ALGOS study from January 2010 to February 2013 was used to evaluate the association of risk of suicide reattempt within 6 and 14 months with the use of different classes of psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics, lithium, anticonvulsants, analgesics, opioid maintenance therapy and maintenance treatment for alcohol dependence). A multivariable Cox model was performed after imputation of missing data using the multiple imputation method.

RESULTS

Our main results did not show an association between psychotropic drug use and suicide reattempt after 6 months of follow-up. We demonstrated that the use of benzodiazepines (HR = 1.87 [1.25; 2.81], p < 0.01) and hypnotics (HR = 1.49 [1.03; 2.17], p = 0.04) or a combination of both (HR = 1.80 [1.17; 2.72], p = 0.01) were associated with suicide reattempt within 14 months after a previous SA.

CONCLUSION

The early identification of a positive association between psychotropic drugs and the risk of suicidal behaviour is extremely important for prevention of suicide reattempts. Special precautions should be considered when prescribing psychotropic drugs for these subjects, particularly those at risk of suicide reattempt.

The association between self-reported mental health, medication record and suicide risk: A population wide study

Suicide mortality and mental ill health are increasing globally. Mental ill health can be measured in multiple ways. It is unclear which measure is most associated with suicide risk. This study explored the association between self-rated mental health and medication record and death by suicide. The 2011 Northern Ireland Census records of adults aged 18-74 years (n=1,098,967) were linked to a centralised database of dispensed prescription medication and death registrations until the end of 2015. Mental health status was ascertained through both a single-item self-reported question in the Census and receipt of psychotropic medication. Logistic regression models examined the association between indicators of mental ill health and likelihood of suicide mortality. Of the 1,098,967 cohort members, 857 died by suicide during the study period. Just over half of these deaths (n=429, 50.1%) occurred in individuals with neither indicator of mental ill health. Cohort members with both self-reported mental ill health and receipt of psychotropic medication had the highest risk of suicide (OR=6.13, 95%CI: 4.94–7.61), followed by those with psychotropic medication record only (OR=4.00, 95%CI: 3.28–4.88) and self-report only (OR=2.88, 95%CI: 2.16–3.84). Individuals who report mental ill health and have a history of psychotropic medication use are at a high risk of suicide mortality. However, neither measure is particularly sensitive, as both failed to signal over half of subsequent suicides. Some individuals who report poor mental health but are not in receipt of psychotropic medication are at increased risk of suicide, indicating possible unmet treatment need. The combination of the two indicators offers more precision for identifying those most at risk for targeted interventions.

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Mental ill health is associated with an increased risk of suicide, but measuring population mental health is difficult.

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The suicide risk associated with both subjective and objective indicators of mental ill health have not been examined.

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Most individuals who die by suicide have no indicator of mental ill health.

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Having both self-reported poor mental health and psychotropic medication record carried the highest risk of suicide death.

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Increased risk of suicide in individuals who report poor mental health but are not on medication may indicate unmet need.