Publication, Part of Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities
Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities Experimental Statistics 2020 to 2021
Experimental statistics, Other reports and statistics, Official statistics in development
Prescribing
The clinical codes used to define the medicines being prescribed can be found in the Business Rules.
Antipsychotics
Antipsychotics can help to reduce and control many psychotic symptoms.
However, they are not suitable or effective for everyone as side effects can affect people differently.
Each year between 2016-17 and 2020-21, a significantly larger percentage of patients with a learning disability have been prescribed antipsychotics compared to patients without a learning disability.
This ranges from a difference of 14.8 percentage points in 2016-17 to 13.9 percentage points in 2020-21.
The percentage of patients with a learning disability being prescribed antipsychotics has fallen by 0.9 percentage points (15.7% to 14.8%) between 2016-17 and 2020-21. The percentage of patients without a learning disability being prescribed antipsychotics has remained steady over the same period (0.9%).
Antipsychotics without severe mental illness
This is a new indicator introduced in 2020-21 which shows an 8.9 percentage point difference between patients with a learning disability and those without. The percentage of patients who do not have a diagnosis of severe mental illness and who do not require palliative care who were prescribed antipsychotics and have a learning disability was 9.3% compared to 0.4% for those without a learning disability.
Benzodiazepines
Benzodiazepines act as a sedative – slowing down the body’s functions – and are used to treat sleeping problems and anxiety.
Each year between 2016-17 and 2020-21, a significantly larger percentage of patients with a learning disability have been prescribed benzodiazepines compared to patients without a learning disability.
The percentage of patients being prescribed benzodiazepines has decreased for both cohorts of patients over the same period (0.6 percentage points for both patients with a learning disability and patients without a learning disability).
Antidepressants
Antidepressants are a type of medicine used to treat clinical depression. They can also be used to treat several other conditions, including long-term (chronic) pain.
This is a new indicator introduced in 2020-21 which shows a 10.4 percentage point difference between patients with a learning disability and those without. The percentage of patients with a learning disability who were treated with antidepressants was 20.7% compared to 10.3% for those without a learning disability.
Antidepressants without an active depression diagnosis
The percentage of patients with a learning disability without an active depression diagnosis who were prescribed antidepressants has risen by 0.8 percentage points (10.8% to 11.6%) between 2016-17 and 2020-21. The percentage of patients without a learning disability and without an active depression diagnosis who were prescribed antidepressants has remained steady over the same period (between 4.3% and 4.4%).
Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs)
AEDs are a type of medication most commonly used in the treatment of epilepsy. They do not cure epilepsy but can stop seizures happening. AEDs are also used to treat other things such as bipolar disorder or migraines.
Each year between 2016-17 and 2020-21, a significantly larger percentage of patients with a learning disability without an active epilepsy diagnosis were treated with epilepsy drugs compared to patients without a learning disability.
The percentage of patients without an active epilepsy diagnosis currently prescribed epilepsy drugs decreased between 2019-20 and 2020-21 after steadily increasing since 2016-17. In patients with a learning disability, the percentage was lower in 2020-21 (4.9%) than 2016-17 (5.3%), whilst those without a learning disability has returned to the same level as 2016-17.
Last edited: 9 March 2023 1:59 pm