Prevalência de polifarmácia em pacientes com esquizofrenia em um hospital psiquiátrico no norte do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Introduction: There are several complications that increase the likelihood of patients with schizophrenia needing to use polypharmacy. The increase in polypharmacy denotes a possible poor quality of life and reveals the need to address the necessary care for each patient. Objective: To analyze the prevalence of polypharmacy in schizophrenic patients Method: The sample of patients was obtained by analyzing the medical records of a psychiatric hospital located in the city of Passo Fundo, RS. Substantial information was collected for the article, such as epidemiological characteristics, polypharmacy use and sociodemographic characteristics. The analysis was carried out using the free distribution program PSPP. Results: 137 patients were included in the study. The presence of polypharmacy was 33.6%. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and dyslipidemia were the most prevalent diseases. 28.12 % of the patients used monotherapy with antipsychotics from the typical class, 37.5% from the atypical class and 34.37% used a combination of the two antipsychotic classes. Conclusions: There are factors that influence the need to use polypharmacy, especially other comorbidities present in patients, as well as poor response to psychotic monotherapy, which leads to the use of combinations of antipsychotics, increasing the risk of drug interactions and side effects.