One In Six Adults In The U.S. Takes Psychiatric Drugs, Study Says

A new study has found that one in six adults in the United States takes a psychiatric drug at least once during 2013.

Published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the report was based on the 2013 government survey data on more than 37,000 adults. It provides an insight on prescription drug use among people suffering from psychological and sleep problems to date.

"I follow this area, so I knew the numbers would be high," Thomas J. Moore, a researcher at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and lead researcher, told The New York Times. "But in some populations, the rates are extraordinary," he added.

About 85 percent of those who received at least one drug had filled multiple prescriptions for the drug over the course of the year studied. This is already termed as long-term use.

"To discover that eight in 10 adults who have taken psychiatric drugs are using them long term raises safety concerns, given that there's reason to believe some of this continued use is due to dependence and withdrawal symptoms," Mr. Moore said.

Demographic Differences

Moreover, the researchers found that older adults, approximately between 60 and 85 years old, are now the highest users of psychiatric medicines. More than a quarter of people within this age bracket reported the use of the drugs compared with ages of 18 and 39 with 9 percent and about 18 percent of people between 40 and 59 years old, CNN reports.

The most common type of psychiatric drug in the survey was antidepressants. About 12 percent of adults reported using this drug at least once in 2013. Roughly 8.3 percent of adults used sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs and hypnotics; and 1.6 percent received prescriptions for antipsychotics.

Most Used Psychiatric Drugs

Two antidepressants were dubbed as the most commonly used psychiatric drugs in 2013 -- sertraline hydrochloride (Zoloft) and citalopram hydrobromide (Celexa). On the other hand, the most commonly used sedative was Alprazolam (Xanax), Live Science reports. Other leading drugs were Ambien, a hypnotic, and Prozac and Desyrel, which are both antidepressants.