Original scientific paper
Nine-year Trends in the Morbidity of Mental Disorders and Psychotropic Drug Utilization in Croatia: Over-diagnosis and Over-utilization?
Mirica Rapić
; Family Practice »Dr. Mirica Rapi}«, Karlovac, Croatia
Tatjana Cikač
; Family Practice »Dr. Tatjana Cika~«, Vara`din, Croatia
Zdenka Barišić-Marčac
; Family Practice »Dr. Zdenka Bari{i}-Mar~ac«, Generalski Stol, Croatia
Danijela Štimac
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Department for Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care, Zagreb, Croatia A B
Abstract
Overall drug overuse, including psychotropic, is the Croatian reality. Therefore, in between 2000 and 2012, the interventions
to control drug overspending were undertaken. The main aims of the study are: to determine the morbidity
trends of mental disorders registered in family medicine (FM), the trends in psychotropic drug utilization and to identify
whether the trends of utilization have any relation to the interventions. The results indicate that mental disorders represent
a high disease burden in Croatia. It was also present a higher burden of psychotropic drug utilization; second
ranked in the total drug utilization during the nine-year follow up period. The utilization of psycholeptic’s, was even
higher; from 2004 to 2008; those drugs were ranked first in terms of utilization. Between 20–25% of Croatia’s total
health care budget is usually spent on drugs. The interventions that are currently being implemented to control drug utilization
have not brought about any changes.
Keywords
mental disorders; psychotropic drug; over-diagnosis; over-utilization; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
147524
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2014.
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