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High-dose antipsychotic medication

Improving clinical practice in a psychiatric special (intensive) care unit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter L. Cornwall ,
Fuad Hassanyeh  and
Caprice Horn
Caprice Horn
Affiliation:
St Nicholas Hospital, Jubilee Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT
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Abstract

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We audited the use of high-dose antipsychotic drugs in patients admitted to a special (intensive) care unit over two periods. Five out of 57 patients in the first sample and three out of 62 in the second were treated with a single antipsychotic drug above the British National Formulary maximum dose. The proportion of patients treated with antipsychotic drugs such that the total dose in chlorpromazine equivalents was greater than 1000 mg, fed. The audit showed improvements in clinical practice, particularly with respect to the onset of, indication for and outcome of high-dose treatment and in monitoring the patients' physical status.

Type
Audit
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 11 , November 1996 , pp. 676 - 680
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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