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Olanzapine in practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David Taylor ,
Siobhan Drummond  and
Joanne Pendlebury
David Taylor*
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital Denmark Hill London SE5 8AZ
Siobhan Drummond
Affiliation:
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital London
Joanne Pendlebury
Affiliation:
Charing Cross Hospital London
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Prescription charts including a prescription for olanzapine were evaluated for 202 patients from 15 National Health Service trusts. In patients prescribed olanzapine for less than six weeks, the mean dose was found to be 12.4mg/day but 56% of patients were prescribed olanzapine as the sole antipsychotic. For patients prescribed olanzapine for longer than six weeks (when dose titration and drug crossovers were assumed to be complete) the mean dose of olanzapine was 15.8mg/day and 64% received olanzapine as the sole antipsychotic. A substantial proportion of patients were prescribed concurrent anticholinergic drugs (but relatively few when on olanzapine alone). Olanzapine was used in doses higher than the standard dose recommended by the manufacturers, often in combination with typical antipsychotics. Such practices increase costs and, at least in the latter case, very probably adversely affect outcome. Studies are needed to evaluate the relative effectiveness of commonly used antipsychotic regimens in naturalistic settings. In the absence of these, olanzapine should be used as the sole antipsychotic and patients should be property assessed on lower doses before dose increases are undertaken.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 22 , Issue 9 , September 1998 , pp. 552 - 554
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 © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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