Association Between Antipsychotic Polypharmacy and Outcomes for People With Serious Mental Illness in England

What is it about?

Antipsychotic polypharmacy is the use of two or more different antipsychotic agents at the same time. Although UK and international guidelines recommend the use of a single antipsychotic medication at a time, polypharmacy is common in clinical practice. We analysed a cohort of 17,255 patients with serious mental illness using primary care data, hospital data and mortality data from the UK. We found no evidence of a positive or negative effect of polypharmacy on mortality and hospitalizations. At a policy level these findings do not rule out polypharmacy options but highlight the need for further research on the appropriateness of polypharmacy.

Featured Image