Abstract
BACKGROUND: The armed forces work under high pressure and in stressful environments and it is well known that being in the military is a risk factor for psychiatric problems. However, it remains unknown how prevalent psychotropic medication use is in military personnel.
OBJECTIVE: To assess prevalence of psychotropic medication use in Dutch military personnel and compare to the Dutch general population.
METHODS: Data were obtained from the military pharmacy. From 2003 to 2012, the year-prevalence of psychotropic medication use was calculated from the number of distributed psychotropic medications and the number of Dutch military personnel. For the year 2011, the year-prevalence of psychotropic medication use in the military was compared to that of the Dutch general population.
RESULTS: The year-prevalence of psychotropic medication use increased by 55%, from 1.64% in 2003 to 2.54% in 2012 in Dutch military personnel. An increase is seen in the number of users of psychotropic medication. Also the use of antidepressants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication increased.
CONCLUSION: Over the last decade, there has been a 1.5-fold increase in psychotropic medication dispensed to Dutch military personnel. However, Dutch military personnel were significantly less likely to use psychotropic medications compared to the Dutch general population.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | e1584-e1588 |
| Journal | Pain Medicine |
| Volume | 182 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2017 |