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Prescribing of psychotropic drugs to people with learning disabilities and/or autism by general practitioners in England
- Author:
- PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND
- Publisher:
- Public Health England
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 67
- Place of publication:
- London
As part of a wider review of the prescribing of antipsychotic and antidepressant medicines for people with challenging behaviour following events at Winterbourne View hospital, this report looks at the extent of prescribing of psychotropic medication for people with learning disabilities or autism by general practitioners in England. It uses data from a major UK general practice research dataset to explore the overall extent of the use of antipsychotic and antidepressant medicines; patterns of prescribing, short term or ongoing; the extent to which use of these drugs was associated with recording of recognised indications; and variations in these patterns between subgroups of patients. Searches were carried out on patient clinical records between April 2009 and March 2012. Records of a total of 17,887 people with learning disabilities and an additional 11,136 with autism were included in the study. It was found that 17% of adults with a learning disability known to their GP were being prescribed an antipsychotic and that over half did not have a diagnosis in their GP record of a condition which psychotropic drugs were designed to treat. (Edited publisher abstract)