Factors Associated With Use of Medications for Anxiety and Depression in Pharmacy Students in Brazil.

Objective. To map undergraduate pharmacy students' use of medications for anxiety and depression and associated factors at one university in Brazil.Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2019 among undergraduate pharmacy students at one university. Data regarding sociodemographic issues and the use of psychotropics were collected using an online questionnaire. Exploratory descriptive analysis of data, the chi-square test, and multivariate binary logistic regression were performed to identify factors associated with the use of medications for anxiety and depression.Results. Of 900 students enrolled, usable survey responses were received from 198. Most respondents were female with a mean age of 22.3 years. Among these, 17.7% of pharmacy students used medications to treat anxiety and 13.1% used medications for depression. The most common psychotropics were escitalopram and fluoxetine. There were two peak usage times: the initial and final year of pharmacy school. Dissatisfaction with the pharmacy program and psychological care were significantly associated with the use of medications for anxiety. In contrast, monthly income from three to 15 times the minimum wage, religiosity/spirituality, and psychological care were associated with students' use of medications for depression.Conclusion. There was a high prevalence of medication use to treat anxiety and depression among undergraduate pharmacy students, and this use was associated with psychological care, monthly income, and religiosity/spirituality.

Efficacy and safety of aripiprazole for the treatment of schizophrenia: an overview of systematic reviews.

PURPOSE: To conduct an overview to summarize the efficacy and safety of aripiprazole for the treatment of schizophrenia. METHODS: A literature search was performed in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, LILACS, and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, for articles published until March 31, 2017. We included systematic reviews with meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials assessing the efficacy, and/or the safety of aripiprazole, for patients with schizophrenia. Two authors independently performed the study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach and the Risk of Bias in Systematic Review (ROBIS) tool were used to appraise the quality of evidence and the risk of bias in the reviews, respectively. RESULTS: Fourteen studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Aripiprazole showed efficacy similar to that of both typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs (except olanzapine and amisulpride). Aripiprazole caused significantly lower weight gain and alterations in glucose and cholesterol levels, as compared to clozapine, risperidone, and olanzapine. In addition, aripiprazole caused significantly fewer general extrapyramidal side effects, less use of antiparkinsonian drugs, and akathisia, compared with typical antipsychotic drugs and risperidone. The overall quality of evidence in the reviews ranged from "very low" to "moderate," principally because of the risk of bias of original trials, inconsistency, and imprecision in the outcomes. According to the ROBIS tool, there are four reviews with "high" risk of bias and five with "unclear" risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS: Aripiprazole exhibited efficacy similar to that of other antipsychotic drugs and a better safety profile than that of typical (i.e., less some extrapyramidal side effects) and atypical (i.e., less metabolic changes) antipsychotic drugs.