HIGHEST CONSUMPTION OF ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN THE COUNTRY?

HIGHEST CONSUMPTION OF ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN THE COUNTRY? GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA

New Haven Register
Within Connecticut, New Haven area has highest use of antidepressants, study finds
By Lisa Chedekel
Conn. Health I-Team Writer
February 21, 2013

In Alexandria, Va., the rate of antidepressant use is the highest in the country, with a full 40 percent of residents receiving prescriptions.

Cape Cod, Mass., tops the country in the use of stimulants, with 16 percent of the population filling at least one prescription, compared to a mean of 2.6 percent nationally.

Gainsville, Fla., has the highest utilization rate of antipsychotics – 4.6 percent of residents, well above the national mean of .8 percent.

Usage rates of the three classes of mental health medications vary widely across the U.S., with Connecticut in the middle, according to a new study by the Yale School of Management. The study found that much of the geographic variation could be explained by access to health care and pharmaceutical marketing efforts, rather than by the underlying prevalence rate of the psychiatric disorders.

For all three classes of medications, use rates were higher in areas with better access to health care, as measured by the number of physicians in a three-digit zip code area. More surprisingly, the study found that in regions of the country where pharmaceutical companies spent the most money marketing drugs, the utilization rate of psychotropic medications was at least 10 percent higher than in areas with the lowest marketing expenditures.

The study is the first to demonstrate that “marketing efforts have a substantial impact on utilization rates,” said Marissa King, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management and the study’s lead author. “There’s a huge geographic variability in utilization rates, and it appears that part of the puzzle is marketing.”

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