METHODS: Demographic and clinical information of 955 older adults were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Standardized data collection procedure was used to record demographic and clinical data.
RESULTS: Proportion of physical comorbidities in this cohort was 44%. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that older age (OR = 1.7, P
RECENT FINDINGS: Except Japan, all the other countries have a very low number of psychiatrists per 100 000 population - far lower than the global target of 10 psychiatrist per 100 000 population. The undergraduate teaching in psychiatry in majority of the countries is restricted to 20 h of lectures given during the 4-6 semester and 2-3 weeks of clinical ward placements. The duration as well as the overall quality of postgraduate training and methods of assessment and accreditation varies widely across and within countries.
SUMMARY: Numerous gaps that need to be addressed to enhance the quality of psychiatrists trained in Asia were identified. There is a need to have uniform minimum standards of training and mechanisms of mutual support, for not only training but also academics and research activities in Asia.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine the prevalence of disorganized speech and its correlates in terms of psychotropic drug prescribing, using the data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Patterns for Antipsychotics (REAP-AP) study.
METHOD: A total of 3744 patients with the ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia were enrolled from 71 survey centers in 15 Asian countries/areas. An essential criterion of disorganized speech was that it was "severe enough to impair substantially effective communication" as defined in the DSM-5. A binary logistic model was fitted to identify the psychotropic drug-prescribing correlates of disorganized speech.
RESULTS: After adjusting for the potential effects of confounding variables, the binary logistic regression model showed that the presence of disorganized speech was directly associated with adjunctive use of mood stabilizers (P
METHODS: The data of 955 older adults with any type of psychiatric disorders were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Both univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
RESULTS: The proportion of benzodiazepine and antidepressant combination in this cohort was 44.3%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that higher doses of antidepressants, younger age (<65 years), inpatients, public hospital, major comorbid medical conditions, antidepressant types, and country/territory were significantly associated with more frequent co-prescription of benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
CONCLUSIONS: Nearly, half of the older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia are prescribed concurrent benzodiazepines. Given the potentially adverse effects of benzodiazepines, the rationale of benzodiazepines and antidepressants co-prescription needs to be revisited.
METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of the database of a multicentre study which recorded participants' basic demographical and clinical data in standardised format in 10 Asian countries and territories. The data were analysed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.
RESULTS: A total of 955 older adult psychiatric in- and outpatients were included in this study. The proportion of concurrent AP and AD use was 32.0%, ranging from 23.3% in Korea to 44.0% in Taiwan. Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that younger age, inpatient status and diagnosis of schizophrenia, anxiety and other mental disorders were significantly related to a higher proportion of concurrent use of APs and ADs.
CONCLUSION: Around a third of older adult psychiatric patients had concurrent AP and AD use in the Asian countries/regions surveyed. Considering the uncertain effectiveness and questionable safety of the AP and AD combination in this patient population, such should be cautiously used.