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Abstract

Objectives: To describe the prescribing patterns and identify correlates of prescribing antipsychotic. Design: A hospital-based cross-sectional study. Setting: A leading mental hospital in Kenya. Subjects: Adult patients receiving care for psychiatric illnesses Outcome Measures: The patients’ sociodemographic profile and antipsychotic prescribing data were recorded and associations between the two were computed at P≤ 0.05. Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.7 (SD 13.4) years and a majority were males (64.7%). Most prescriptions contained first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs) (79.2%), and almost half (45.2%) had second-generation antipsychotics. Most patients (53.7%) used supramaximal doses, which was significantly associated with polypharmacy of FGAs (P<0.001). Prescribing more than one FGA significantly increased the odds of having a supramaximal dose by 18 times (P<0.001). Conclusion: Polypharmacy especially with FGAs and use of supramaximal doses was prevalent. Future studies should develop a scaled guideline that informs the clinical efficacy of various doses of chlorpromazine equivalents.

Keywords: Antipsychotics; Polypharmacy; FGAs; SGAs; CPZeq; Supramaximal