A retrospective study of antipsychotic drug switching in a pediatric population

BMC Psychiatry

Table 3 Numbers of patient-weeks as well as the number of starts, stops, and switches were compared

	Number of weeks	Number of switches	Switches per year	Number of starts	Starts per year	Number of stops	Stops per year
Before Admission	4321	26	0.313	144	1.733	90	1.083
After Admission	247.7	6	1.260	23	4.828	14	2.939

Starts were defined as any new antipsychotic prescription following a period of at least 3 weeks with no antipsychotic prescriptions; similarly stops were defined as the discontinuation of antipsychotic prescription for at least three weeks. Switches were defined as a new antipsychotic medication started within three weeks (before or after) the termination or beginning of titrating down to termination of another antipsychotic prescription. Frequencies were compared using a Chi-squared test, and all changes were significant.

ISSN: 1471-244X