Canada is seeing a rise in the number of off-label prescriptions for powerful antipsychotic drugs. This means that these drugs are being used for conditions other than those that they are intended for. Medical experts in the country are becoming increasingly concerned that this highlights a lack of professional ethics and an absence of government supervision regarding the prescribing practices doctors.
Off-label prescribing is believed to be one of the leading causes for the significant increase in the use of Seroquel over the last six years. This drug is approved for use in Canada for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Based on the survey conducted by MIS Health Canada Inc., prescriptions for this particular drug has risen significantly from 4.1 million prescriptions in 2008 to 7.4 million prescriptions in 2013. Based on this statistic, experts are saying that the prescriptions for this preparation are "vastly disproportionate to the number of Canadians suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
Dr. David Juurlink is the head of the Division Of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto. He says that, "Often what we see is people taking this drug primarily as a sleep aid, and that's very bad medicine. And I think that it's something that should be discouraged. I think that if doctors understood what exactly this drug was and how it worked and what it's side effects were, they've been very reluctant to prescribe it that way." Some adverse effects associated to the use of Seroquel are hyperglycemia, diabetes, intestinal obstruction, constipation, and other complications arising from the formation of blood clots.
Clinically, Seroquel is classified as a psychotropic medication that is indicated for use in "specific disorders, not for symptoms." Off label prescribing of such drugs are usually regulated by the Canadian government and its subsidiaries. In this case, however, it seems as though proper supervision is lacking. Dr. Juurlink says that doctors must stick to the guidelines that are set regarding prescriptions of this kind. "This is a drug that can kill people, period. It is difficult sometimes to know who these people are going to be."
