Treatment patterns of patients with schizophrenia based on the data from 44,836 outpatients in Russia

Abstract

Aim: The goal of the present study was to estimate the treatment patterns in outpatients with schizophrenia in Russia. Methods: A total of 44,836 outpatients with schizophrenia treated by 812 psychiatrists in 2018 were selected in the LRx database in Russia. We descriptively analyzed the proportions of patients treated with different therapy classes and drugs. Results: Typical antipsychotics (58.2%) were the therapies with the highest patient proportion, followed by anti-Parkinson drugs (38.3%) and antidepressants (30.6%). The most frequent anti-Parkinson drug was trihexyphenidyl; the most frequent antidepressant was amitriptyline. Conclusions: The findings of this study imply that the proportion of older drugs is higher in schizophrenia therapy in Russia than reported based on samples in Europe and the U.S.