U.S.A.:Psychiatric Drugs 2009 [Source: Express Scripts 2009 Drug Trend Report]
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•antidepressants9.9%31,000,000
•anticonvulsants4.0%12,300,000
•stimulants2.2% 6,754,000
•*antipsychotics1.8% 5,526,000
•
•
•*part of Express
Scripts’ “mental/neurological” class:
• includes lithium,
dementia drugs, sub. abuse
Express Scripts, a
pharmaceutical benefits management company, produces annual drug trend
reports.The information in this
slide was obtained from the most recent Drug Trend Report (published in April
2010).Approximately 10% of U.S.
residents used an antidepressant at some time in 2009; 4% used
anticonvulsants; 2% used stimulants; and approximately 2% used an
antipsychotic.
These numbers
exclude drug use by non-commercially insured patients, such as veterans and
active duty military personnel; institutionalized patients (e.g., residents
of nursing homes, prisons, jails, and state hospitals); and patients who rely
upon publicly funded programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare.
How Did They Do
It:
Prescription drug
use was evaluated by examining pharmacy claims from two independent, random
samples of approximately 3 million commercially insured individuals.The prevalence of use was calculated by
dividing the # of insured members taking medications in a certain drug class
by the total number of insured.
To place the
aforementioned figures in context,the
Express Scripts database revealed the following patterns of non-psychiatric
drug use in 2009: