Table 1.
Numbers (%) of drugs for mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, antidepressants and BZRAs divided by age and sex
| Sex | Age (years) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | Females | Significance | ≤ 39 | 40–64 | ≥ 65 | Significance | |
| N = 1408 | N = 1698 | N = 676 | N = 1899 | N = 531 | |||
| Mood stabilizers | |||||||
| Lithium | 718 (51.0%) | 755 (44.5%) | < 0.001 | 287 (42.5%) | 902 (47.5%) | 284 (53.5%) | < 0.001 |
| Valproate | 408 (29.0%) | 474 (27.9%) | 0.513 | 160 (23.7%) | 575 (30.3%) | 147 (27.7%) | 0.004 |
| Lamotrigine | 337 (23.9%) | 397 (23.4%) | 0.717 | 200 (29.6%) | 465 (24.5%) | 69 (13.0%) | < 0.001 |
| Carbamazepine | 72 (5.1%) | 77 (4.5%) | 0.452 | 21 (3.1%) | 103 (5.4%) | 25 (4.7%) | 0.053 |
| Other medications | |||||||
| Antipsychotics | 777 (55.1%) | 911 (53.6%) | 0.393 | 387 (57.2%) | 1075 (56.6%) | 226 (42.5%) | < 0.001 |
| Antidepressants | 566 (40.1%) | 713 (41.9%) | 0.312 | 271 (40.0%) | 822 (43.2%) | 186 (35.0%) | 0.002 |
| BZRAs | 969 (68.8%) | 1236 (72.7%) | 0.015 | 443 (65.5%) | 1391 (73.2%) | 371 (69.8%) | < 0.001 |
BZRAs, benzodiazepine receptor agonists