gms | German Medical Science

11. Jahrestagung 2004 der GAA

Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie

30.09. bis 01.10.2004, Jena

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Comparison of primary and secondary data: mental disorders prevalence and drug use patterns in young women

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker I. Hach - Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, TU Dresden, Germany
  • A. Rentsch - University Cancer Center, TU Dresden, Germany
  • U. Ruhl - Department of Clinical Psychology, TU Dresden, Germany
  • E. Becker - Department of Clinical Psychology, Catholic University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  • J. Krappweis - BfARM Bonn, Germany
  • W. Kirch - Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, TU Dresden, Germany

Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelanwendungsforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie (GAA) e.V.. 11. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie (GAA) e.V.. Jena, 30.09.-01.10.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04gaa05

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gaa2004/04gaa05.shtml

Published: September 30, 2004

© 2004 Hach et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Context

There is a lack on data about drug use patterns and prevalence of mental disorders in young women.

Aim of the Study

To evaluate drug use patterns in young women in relation to mental disorders prevalence (analyzing primary and secondary data).

Materials and Methods

1555 German women (18-25 years old, living in Dresden, Saxony), obtained in a random clustered sample, were asked about their actual and former medication. The participants were interviewed twice (T1: lifetime prevalence and point prevalence; T2: one-year prevalence and point prevalence) with the research version of the Diagnostic Interview for mental disorders (F-DIPS). The F-DIPS is a structured interview to obtain Axis I diagnoses according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). In the same time period we investigated primary care physicians' diagnoses of those women (claims forms and prescription data) and compared F-DIPS diagnoses with the physicians' diagnostic labels. We translated every medication into the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification index. The data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and a relational database (Paradox 7.0).

Results

Mental disorders are highly prevalent in young adult females. Altogether only 10% of women with at least one mental disorder (according to F-DIPS) used psychotropic medication. No significant differences were found between the two sources of prescription data (verbal reports versus prescriptions). There was only a small accordance between F-DIPS diagnoses and psychiatric diagnoses of claims forms.

Conclusions

The results indicate an apparently inadequate nervous system drug supply (regarding quality and quantity) to women with mental disorders. Primary care physicians' data (i.e., diagnostic labels) about mental disorders prevalence as a basis for calculating treatment requirements should be used very carefully, as their validity seems to be low.

This study was supported by grant DLR 01EG9410, Ministry of Science, Research and Education.