Pharmacotherapy of Mental Illness in the Mental Health Centers in Kosovo During 2021

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Treatment of mental illness with pharmacotherapy is strictly monitored in clinical centers dedicated to this purpose. While in most developed countries, this practice is well established, in Kosovo, in the absence of such a system, there is the need for further and continued investigation in this context with the aim to better monitor the therapy. AIM: This work aims to analyze and investigate the treatment of patients with mental illness in the Mental Health (MH) Centers in Kosovo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The methodology of this research work is based on the specific guidelines published by the World Health Organization (WHO) - Handbook of the WHO. All patients’ data were obtained from the protocol books of the treated patients. In each of MH-Centers in Kosovo, 30 patients were selected according to the theory of probability and were analyzed. A total of 209 patients were enrolled in the study. We used quantitative analysis of described drug therapy, while disorders were categorized according to the International Classification of Diseases-10R. RESULTS: Drugs were mainly administered through the mouth, per os (82.4%). According to the clinics, there was no significant change in the administration route of the drugs (p > 0.11). Almost, two-third of the prescribed drugs were essential (66.1%). Considering the class of the therapeutic drugs, over half of them were antipsychotic (53.2%), whereas a percentage of 17.2% and 13.8% were anticholinergic and anxiolytic/hypnotic drugs, accordingly. These classes of drugs were 84.2% of the overall used drugs. Taken together, in the MH Centers in Kosovo, drugs are mainly administered orally, with only 17.6% of the cases treated parenterally. The majority of the drugs used are non-essential drugs, with antipsychotics being the most prescribed ones. CONCLUSIONS: Furthermore, the study highlights the use of third-line therapy as a first choice and the use of effective drugs with low safety profiles such as clozapine. The application of the practice of drug prescribing by essential list without consideration of data by new evidence-based research for the treatment of mentally disordered patients should be addressed and considered by stakeholders and policymakers in the Ministry of Health of Kosovo for future strategies in selection and in the providing the new essential list in psychopharmacology