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The use of antipsychotic medications (APMs) could be different among countries due to availability, approved indications, characteristics and clinical practice. However, there is limited literature providing comparisons of APMs use among countries. To examine trends in antipsychotic prescribing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States, we conducted a cross-national study from 2002 to 2014 b y using the distributed network approach with common data model. We included all patients who had at least a record of antipsychotic prescription in this study, and defined patients without previous exposure of antipsychotics for 6 months before the index date as new users for incidence estimation. We calculated the incidence, prevalence, and prescription rate of each medication by calendar year. Among older patients, sulpiride was the most incident [incidence rate (IR) 11.0–23.3) and prevalent [prevalence rate (PR) 11.9–14.3) APM in Taiwan, and most prevalent (PR 2.5–3.9) in Japan. Quetiapine and haloperidol were most common in the United States (IR 8.1–9.5; PR 18.0–18.4) and Hong Kong (PR 8.8–13.7; PR 10.6–12.7), respectively. The trend of quetiapine use was increasing in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States. As compared to older patients, the younger patients had more propensity to be prescribed second-generation APM for treatment in four countries. Trends in antipsychotic prescribing varied among countries. Quetiapine use was most prevalent in the United States and increasing in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The increasing use of quetiapine in the elderly patients might be due to its safety profile compared to other APMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that younger patients treated with antipsychotics are at increased risk of metabolic events; however, it is unknown how this risk varies according to ethnicity, the class of antipsychotic and the specific product used, and by age group. We conducted a multinational sequence symmetry study in Asian populations (Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) and non-Asian populations (Australia and Denmark) to evaluate the metabolic events associated with antipsychotics in both Asian and non-Asian populations, for typical and atypical antipsychotics, and by the subgroups of children and adolescents, and young adults. Patients aged 6-30 years newly initiating oral antipsychotic drugs were included. We defined a composite outcome for metabolic events which included dyslipidemia, hypertension and hyperglycemia. We calculated the sequence ratio (SR) by dividing the number of people for whom a medicine for one of the outcome events was initiated within a 12-month period after antipsychotic initiation by the number before antipsychotic initiation. This study included 346,904 antipsychotic initiators across seven countries. Antipsychotic use was associated with an increased risk of composite metabolic events with a pooled adjusted SR (ASR) of 1.22 (95% CI 1.00-1.50). Pooled ASRs were similar between Asian (ASR, 1.22; 95% CI 0.88-1.70) and non-Asian populations (ASR, 1.22; 95% CI 1.04-1.43). The pooled ASR for typical and atypical antipsychotics was 0.98 (95% CI 0.85-1.12) and 1.24 (95% CI 0.97-1.59), respectively. No difference was observed in the relative effect in children and adolescents compared to young adults. The risk of metabolic events associated with antipsychotics use was similar in magnitude in Asian and non-Asian populations despite the marked difference in drug utilization patterns., (© 2020. Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: The safety of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) commonly used in Asia-Pacific countries has had limited study. We assessed the risk of hospitalization for gastrointestinal events with loxoprofen and mefenamic acid compared with other NSAIDs in Asia-Pacific populations., Methods: We conducted a cohort study using a distributed network with a common data model in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We included patients who initiated diclofenac, loxoprofen, mefenamic acid, or celecoxib and followed them until their first gastrointestinal hospitalization, switch or discontinuation of medication, disenrollment, or end of database coverage. We used Cox proportional hazards models to assess hospitalization risk., Results: We identified 9879 patients in Japan, 70 492 in Taiwan, 263 741 in Korea, and 246 in Hong Kong who initiated an NSAID, and 44 013 patients in Australia, a predominantly Caucasian population. The incidence of gastrointestinal hospitalization was 25.6 per 1000 person-years in Japan, 32.8 in Taiwan, 11.5 in Korea, 484.5 in Hong Kong, and 35.6 in Australia. Compared with diclofenac, the risk of gastrointestinal events with loxoprofen was significantly lower in Korea (hazards ratio, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.25-0.54) but not in Japan (1.65; 95% CI, 0.47-5.78). The risk of gastrointestinal events with mefenamic acid was significantly lower in Taiwan (0.45; 95% CI, 0.26-0.78) and Korea (0.11; 95% CI, 0.05-0.27) but not Hong Kong (2.16; 95% CI, 0.28-16.87), compared with diclofenac., Conclusions: Compared with diclofenac, loxoprofen was associated with a lower risk of gastrointestinal hospitalizations in Korea and mefenamic acid with a lower risk in Taiwan and Korea., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: This study describes the availability and characteristics of databases in Asian-Pacific countries and assesses the feasibility of a distributed network approach in the region., Methods: A web-based survey was conducted among investigators using healthcare databases in the Asia-Pacific countries. Potential survey participants were identified through the Asian Pharmacoepidemiology Network., Results: Investigators from a total of 11 databases participated in the survey. Database sources included four nationwide claims databases from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; two nationwide electronic health records from Hong Kong and Singapore; a regional electronic health record from western China; two electronic health records from Thailand; and cancer and stroke registries from Taiwan., Conclusions: We identified 11 databases with capabilities for distributed network approaches. Many country-specific coding systems and terminologies have been already converted to international coding systems. The harmonization of health expenditure data is a major obstacle for future investigations attempting to evaluate issues related to medical costs.