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Has the concomitant prescription of more than one psychotropic medication in the same class increased recently? To address this question, researchers assessed prescribing trends between 1996 and 2006 by using representative data from a national survey of medical practices involving 13,079 visits to psychiatrists by adults with a diagnosis of a mental disorder.
Between 1996–1997 and 2005–2006, the percentage of visits in which any psychotropic medication was prescribed increased from 73% to 86%; the percentage increased from 43% to 60% for prescription of two or more of these medications and from 17% to 33% for three or more. All increases were statistically significant. The most commonly prescribed combinations were of antidepressants with s…