CC BY 4.0 · Journal of Child Science 2020; 10(01): e233-e239
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1721679
Original Article

Psychotropic Drug Use in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Admitted to a Training and Research Hospital Outpatient Clinic: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
,
1   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
› Institutsangaben
Funding None.

Abstract

This study aimed to examine demographic and clinical variables, psychiatric comorbidities, the prevalence of psychotropic drug use, relationships between drug use, demographic and clinical variables, and predictors of drug use in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) admitted to a training and research hospital outpatient clinic. Four hundred and eleven children with ASD admitted to the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital, between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic and clinical variables, psychiatric comorbidities, and characteristics of drug use for the cases were recorded. Psychotropic drug use was found in 34.3% (n = 141) of the cases. Our results revealed male sex and psychiatric comorbidity as predictors of psychotropic drug use. Antipsychotics were the most prescribed drugs, and the most common psychiatric comorbidity was conduct disorder. Also, children with ASD who had been toilet-trained, and could express sentences but were illiterate, were using psychotropic drugs more often than others. Future multicentered, large clinic-based studies from training and research hospitals should focus on trends of treatment in psychiatric comorbidities accompanying ASD, and constitute a systematic approach for the psychopharmacological treatment of these cases.

Ethical Approval

This study obtained ethical approval from University of Health Sciences Ankara City Hospital.




Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 10. September 2020

Angenommen: 29. Oktober 2020

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
21. Dezember 2020

© 2020. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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