Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T18:21:07.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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

References

Baldessarini, R. J., Cohen, B. M. & Teicher, M. H. (1988) Significance of neuroleptic dosage and plasma level in the pharmacological treatment of psychoses. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 79–91.Google ScholarPubMed
Barnes, T. R. E. & Bridges, R. K. (1980) Disturbed behaviour induced with high dose antipsychotic drugs. British Medical Journal 281, 274–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bollini, P., Andreani, A., Colombo, F., et al (1984) High dose neuroleptics: uncontrolled clinical practice confirms controlled clinical trials. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 25–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, S. & Kumar, V. (1984) A survey of prescribing of psychotropic drugs in a Birmingham psychiatric hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 502–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, K. & Hepple, J. (1992) Prescribing in a special hospital. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 3, 311–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, D. B. (1993) Audit of antipsychotic use in relation to BNF guidelines on dose, route and polypharmacy. Psychiatric Bulletin, 17, 773–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, S. R. & Barnes, T. R. E. (1994) Clinical use of high-dose neuroleptics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 94–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joint Formulary Committee (1994) British National Formulary, No. 27. London: British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.Google Scholar
Kane, J. M. (1994) The use of higher-dose antipsychotic medication. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 431–432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mehtonen, O.-P., Aranko, K., Malkonen, L., et al (1991) A survey of sudden death associated with the use of antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs: 49 cases in Finland. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 84, 58–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, L.S., Ring, H., Shine, P. J., et al (1992) Rapid tranquillisation. A survey of emergency prescribing in a general psychiatric hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 831–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rey, M., Schulz, P., Costa, C., et al (1989) Guidelines for the dosage of neuroleptics. 1: Chlorpromazine equivalents of orally administered neuroleptics. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 4, 95–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal College of Psychiatrists (1993) Consensus Statement on the Use of High Dose Antipsychotic Medication. CR 26. London: RCPsych.Google Scholar
Schulz, P., Rey, M., Dick, P., et al (1989) Guidelines for the dosage of neuroleptics. 2: Changing from daily oral to long acting injectable neuroleptics. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 4, 105–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanley, A. K. & Doyle, M. A. (1993) Audit of above BNF dosage medication. Psychiatric Bulletin, 17, 299–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, C. (1994) The use of high-dose antipsychotic medication. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 448–458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.