Differences between countries in adult acute psychiatric hospitalization: Clinical features and drug prescription in Spain and the United States of America

Abstract

Introduction

Diverse prescription patterns and differences in length of psychiatry inpatient stay among European and American countries have been reported [1,2].

Objectives

To describe and compare clinical features and drug prescriptions in two Acute Psychiatric Units from Spain and USA.

Methods

Cross-sectional and comparative study. Sample: 73 inpatients from Reno (USA-Inpatients) and 65 from Oviedo (Spain-Inpatients) admitted to public Adult Acute Psychiatric Unit over a two-month period. Sociodemographic/clinical data and drug prescription were collected.

Results

Sociodemographic/clinical comparison (Table 1) and drug prescription differences (Table 2) are shown.

No significant differences in antipsychotics’ prescription except for the most frequently used [risperidone in Spain (36%)/ziprasidone in US (19.6%), Chi² = 39.7**].

Conclusions

(A) Psychiatric inpatients in US are younger, have longer hospitalization, show more comorbid substance use disorder and differ from Spanish inpatients in frequency of diagnostic categories (schizophrenic disorders represent a larger proportion).

(B) Inpatients in Spain usually receive polytherapy, and are more frequently treated with antidepressants and anxiolytics, especially benzodiazepines. In contrast, USA-Inpatients take lithium more often [1,2].

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Table 1

Table 2