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The following is a summary of “Association between a publicly funded universal drug program and antipsychotic and antidepressant medication dispensing to children,” published in the February 2025 issue of BMC Pediatrics by Kitchen et al.
Antidepressant and antipsychotic use in children have risen worldwide, but the impact of drug funding changes is unclear. Ontario’s OHIP+ program, launched in 2018, was amended in 2019 to cover only those without private insurance.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study on the impact of Ontario’s OHIP+ policy changes on antidepressant and antipsychotic prescribing in children.
They conducted a population-based study on antidepressant and antipsychotic dispensing in children ≤18 years old from September 1, 2014, to February 29, 2020. They used IQVIA Geographic Prescription Monitor data and interventional autoregressive integrated moving average models to assess the impact of OHIP+ and its revision on dispensing trends.
The results showed no association between OHIP+ implementation and antidepressant (-19.3 per 1,000; 95% [CI]: -41.7 to 3.1) or antipsychotic (+1.0 per 1,000; 95% CI: -5.4 to 7.5) dispensing. Restricting coverage to children without private insurance also showed no impact on antidepressant (0.3 per 1,000; 95% CI: -7.4 to 7.9) or antipsychotic (1.0 per 1,000; 95% CI: -0.9 to 2.9) trends.
Investigators found that the publicly funded pharmacare program did not impact antidepressant or antipsychotic dispensing trends in children.
Source: bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-024-05345-2
