Trends in high-risk medication use across four countries: Hong Kong, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Australia

This interdisciplinary project across Pharmacy, Psychiatry, Pharmacoepidemiology, and Primary Care and Public Health, aims to characterise the patterns and temporal trends in the global prescribing of three high-risk medications – antidepressants, opioids, and lithium – by estimating the prevalence and incidence of use in children, adults, and older adults (>65 years). These high-risk medications have a high chance of causing harm or death if misused, yet use has significantly grown over the last decade. Utilisation patterns for these medicines vary widely, yet what these patterns are, and how these vary between countries/regions, have not been well studied.

To achieve the project aim, each of the four U21 members adopted a common protocol to access local patient-level electronic data on antidepressants, opioids, and lithium use from 1^st January 2009 to 31^st December 2018.