title: Polypharmacy in psychiatry: a review.
abstract: Psychiatric polypharmacy refers to the prescription of two or more psychiatric medications concurrently to a patient. It can be categorised as same-class, multi-class, adjunctive, augmentation and total polypharmacy. Despite advances in psychopharmacology and a better understanding of the principles of therapeutics, its practice is increasing rapidly. The prevalence of polypharmacy in psychiatry varies between 13%-90%. There are various clinical and pharmaco-economic factors associated with it. Dealing with polypharmacy requires an understanding of its associated factors. Education, guidelines and algorithms for the appropriate management of various conditions are effective ways to avoid irrational polypharmacy.
authors.affiliation: Research Associate, Lokmanya Tilak Medical College and Sion General Hospital, Sion, Mumbai 400 022, India.
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kukreja
authors.forename: Gurvinder
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.forename: Nilesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Amresh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
keywords: Drug combinations; Multiple medications; Polypharmacy; Psychopharmacology