Medication patterns in patients with pervasive developmental disorders: changes over an eight-year period

Objective: Psychotropic medication pattern studies in children and adolescents with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are mostly done using surveys to investigate the inşuences of different regional, sociodemographic and disease related variables. The aim of this study is to investigate time related differences in medication patterns in patients with PDD in the same clinic over an eight-year period.

Method: Data were analyzed from two studies that employed the same methodology and questionnaire. The first study had recruited patients (n=97) with a diagnosis of PDD evaluated in the year 2004-2005 at Hacettepe University Child and Adolescent Psychiatry clinic and the second study had recruited patients (n=112) with the same diagnosis evaluated at the same clinic in the year 2012-2013.

Results: Among children and adolescents with a diagnosis of PDD, the use of any psychotropic increased from 41.2% in 2004 to 56.3% in 2012 (p: 0.03). There was a very large significant increase in serotonin reuptake inhibitors and methylphenidate utilization in this eight year period (p: 0.03, p: 0.02), with no significant increase also occurring for first and second generation antipsychotics. Patient and demographic variables across studies were also examined and older age and presence of hyperactivity were found to be the major correlates of psychotropic medication use.

Conclusion: The hypothesis that the use of psychotropic medications would increase in this period of eight years due to the expanding literature and studies on pharmacotherapy in PDD was revealed to be valid. Knowledge about medication patterns may help clinicians expect and get prepared for future needs.