Table 3.

Trends in multi-class psychotropic visits^a among youth office-based medical visits in which a psychotropic drug is mentioned by psychotropic medication class, United States 1996–2007

	Total office-based medical visits with a psychotropic drug mention				Trend statistic
	1996–1999, (N = 742)		2004–2007 (N = 1,483)
Multi-class psychotropic visits involving:	N	%	N	%	AORb	95% CI	p
Any 2 or more psychotropic medication classes	145	14.3	396	20.2	1.89	1.22–2.94	.005
ADHD medications	86	8.34	246	12.09	1.94	1.13–3.34	.02
Antidepressants	111	10.36	254	13.92	1.89	1.17–3.05	.009
Antipsychotics	47	4.55	225	11.19	4.38	2.50–7.65	<.001
Sedative-hynotics	21	2.60	65	3.71	1.85	.77–4.48	.17
Mood stabilizers	52	5.53	110	4.89	0.57	.33-.99	.05

Note: Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). Percentages (%) are based on weighted data. See Method section for description of medications in each class. Regression coefficients different than 1 at a statistically significant (p<.05) are in bold. Percentages refer to adjusted rates within total office-based psychotropic visits in 1996–1999 (N=742) and 2004–2007 (N=1,483)

^aMulti-class psychotropic visits refer to visits in which patient was prescribed two or more psychotropic agents from across medication classes.

^bOdds ratios assocated with the transformed survey year variable: (survey year-1996)/11, adjusted for age group, ethnicity-race, diagnostic status, comorbidity, source of payment, and physician specialty.