Factors Associated With Antidepressant Dosing in Asia: Findings From the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Study.

In this study, we sought to examine factors associated with dosing of antidepressants (ADs) in Asia. Based on reported data and clinical experience, we hypothesized that doses of ADs would be associated with demographic and clinical factors and would increase over time. This cross-sectional, pharmacoepidemiological study analyzed data collected within the Research Study on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Pattern for Antidepressants from 4164 participants in 10 Asian countries, using univariate and multivariate methods. The AD doses varied by twofold among countries (highest in PR China and RO Korea, lowest in Singapore and Indonesia), and averaged 124 (120-129) mg/d imipramine-equivalents. Average daily doses increased by 12% between 2004 and 2013. Doses were significantly higher among hospitalized patients and ranked by diagnosis: major depression > anxiety disorders > bipolar disorder, but were not associated with private/public or psychiatric/general-medical settings, nor with age, sex, or cotreatment with a mood stabilizer. In multivariate modeling, AD-dose remained significantly associated with major depressive disorder and being hospitalized. Doses of ADs have increased somewhat in Asia and were higher when used for major depression or anxiety disorders than for bipolar depression and for hospitalized psychiatric patients.

A bibliometric study of scientific research conducted on second-generation antipsychotic drugs in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION: A bibliometric study was carried out to ascertain the volume and impact of scientific literature published on second-generation antipsychotic drugs (SGAs) in Singapore from 1997 to 2011. METHODS: A search of the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases was performed to identify articles originating from Singapore that included the descriptors 'atypic* antipsychotic*', 'second-generation antipsychotic*', 'clozapine', 'risperidone', 'olanzapine', 'ziprasidone', 'quetiapine', 'sertindole', 'aripiprazole', 'paliperidone', 'amisulpride', 'zotepine', 'asenapine', 'iloperidone', 'lurasidone', 'perospirone' and 'blonanserin' in the article titles. Certain bibliometric indicators of production and dispersion (e.g. Price's Law on the increase of scientific literature, and Bradford's Law) were applied, and the participation index of various countries was calculated. The bibliometric data was also correlated with some social and health data from Singapore, such as the total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development. RESULTS: From 1997 to 2011, a total of 51 articles on SGAs in Singapore were published. Our results suggested non-fulfilment of Price's Law (r = 0.0648 after exponential adjustment vs. r = 0.2140 after linear adjustment). The most widely studied drugs were clozapine (21 articles), risperidone (16 articles) and olanzapine (8 articles). Division into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus occupied by the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (6 articles) and the Singapore Medical Journal(4 articles). The analysed material was published in a total of 30 journals, with the majority from six journals. Four of these six journals have an impact factor greater than 2. CONCLUSION: Publications on SGAs in Singapore are still too few to confirm an exponential growth of scientific literature.