Hospitalisations related to administration errors of psychotropic drugs: a nationwide retrospective study between 1998 and 2019 in Australia

Setting of initiation and factors associated with antidepressant use on entry to long-term care facilities

AIMS

Antidepressant use increases around long-term care facility (LTCF) entry, and initiation during hospitalizations may contribute to this. This study characterized the care setting (i.e., community-based, hospital or LTCF) where antidepressants were initiated and determined associated resident characteristics.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study including non-Indigenous individuals aged 65-105 years who entered LTCFs in two Australian states during 2015-2019, and were dispensed an antidepressant within 2 months, was conducted. Care settings (community-based, hospital or LTCF) were determined from linked LTCF records, and hospitalizations ≤30 days before LTCF entry. Pharmaceutical claims before and after LTCF entry were screened to determine antidepressant initiation. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression estimated adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for resident characteristics associated with care settings of antidepressant initiation.

RESULTS

This study included 34 525 residents from 1046 LTCFs. Overall, 27 160 (78.7%) commenced antidepressants prior to entry, 2552 (7.4%) in hospital and 4813 (13.9%) in LTCFs. Mirtazapine constituted 44.8% (n = 1143) of antidepressants initiated in hospitals and 39.5% (n = 1902) in LTCFs. Residents who were aged ≥90 years were more likely to start an antidepressant in the LTCF compared to community-based settings (aOR = 1.97, 95% CI 1.74-2.23). Residents recently using a psychotropic were more likely to start an antidepressant in community-based settings before LTCF entry, compared to a hospital or LTCF.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals receiving antidepressants during transition to LTCFs are often already taking antidepressants prior to entry. Future interventions to optimize antidepressant use in LTCFs should consider setting, recency and indication for antidepressant initiation, and ongoing monitoring for safety.

Development and internal validation of a predictive model for prolonged intensive care unit stays in patients with psychotropic drug poisoning

BACKGROUND

Some patients with psychotropic drug poisoning need intensive care unit (ICU) admission, but risk prediction models for prolonged ICU stays are lacking.

OBJECTIVES

Develop and evaluate a prediction model for prolonged ICU stays in patients with psychotropic drug poisoning.

METHODS

The clinical data of patients with psychotropic drug poisoning were collected from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-Ⅳ 2.2 database. Patients were grouped by their ICU length of stay: non-prolonged (<2 days) and prolonged (≥2 days). Variable selection methods included LASSO and logistic regression. The selected variables were used to construct the model, which was subsequently evaluated for discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility.

RESULTS

The cohort included 413 patients with psychotropic drug poisoning, 49.4 % male, with a median age of 41 years. The variables stepwise selected for model construction through LASSO and logistic regression include sepsis, SAPS Ⅱ, heart rate, respiratory rate, and mechanical ventilation. The model showed good discrimination with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.785 (95 % CI: 0.736-0.833) and was validated well with bootstrap internal validation (AUC: 0.792, 95 % CI: 0.745-0.839). Calibration curves indicated good fit (χ2 = 4.148, P = 0.844), aligning observed and predicted rates of prolonged ICU stays. Decision curve analysis (DCA) showed positive net benefits across a threshold probability range of 0.07-0.85.

CONCLUSIONS

The model developed in this study may help predict the risk of prolonged ICU stays for patients with psychotropic drug poisoning.

Eye and adnexa hospitalization in Australia: An ecological study

To investigate the trends of hospital admissions concerning diseases of the eye and adnexa in Australia in the past 2 decades. This is a descriptive ecological study on the population level that examined hospitalization data for the duration between 1998 and 2021 in Australia. Hospitalization data were extracted from the National Hospital Morbidity Database. The chi-squared test was utilized to assess the difference in admission rates between the years 1998 and 2021. Hospital admission rate for diseases of the eye and adnexa increased by 1.20-fold (from 852.32 [95% confidence interval [CI] 848.16-856.47] in 1998 to 1873.72 [95% CI 1868.48-1878.96] in 2021 per 100,000 persons, P < .01). The most common cause of hospitalization for diseases of the eye and adnexa was disorders of the lens (65.7%), followed by disorders of the choroid and retina (15.6%), followed by disorders of the eyelid, lacrimal system, and orbit (7.7%). Hospital admission rate among males increased by 1.25-fold (from 737.67 [95% CI 732.18-743.16] in 1998 to 1657.19 [95% CI 1650.19-1664.20] in 2021 per 100,000 persons). Hospital admission rate among females increased less sharply by 1.03-fold (from 965.37 [95% CI 959.14-971.59] in 1998 to 1964.35 [95% CI 1956.80-1971.90] in 2021 per 100,000 persons). There are clear gender and age roles in the epidemiology of hospital admissions related to eye and adnexa disorders. Lens disorders were the most common cause of hospital admission. The admission rate increase during the past decades could be due to increases in life expectancy, lifestyle changes, and improvements in screening protocols.