Quetiapine is a medicine for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression. Although quetiapine is not often prescribed for sleeping problems, it has become more frequent in recent years. This is not recommended in the guidelines for general practitioners because of side effects and too little evidence of effectiveness. This increase therefore deserves attention.
The reason for listing these figures was a report in the Pharmaceutisch Weekblad “GPs ignore guidelines when prescribing quetiapine” about an investigation by the journalistic platform Pointer of KRO-NCRV.
But even earlier, in 2013, it was Dutch Journal of Medicine noted that quetiapine is used in low doses as a sleep aid.
Nearly 10% of quetiapine prescriptions were for insomnia
In 2015, 5.5 out of 1000 patients registered with their GP were prescribed quetiapine. In 2020, this number has increased to 7.1 in 1000 patients. The percentage of prescriptions for insomnia increased during that period from 5.6% to 9.7%.
Quetiapine was the most commonly prescribed (in more than 75% of prescriptions) for mental health problems, and over half of the people prescribed quetiapine for insomnia also had other mental illnesses.
Figure from the infographic Quetiapine and insomnia. Percentage of prescriptions for quetiapine in general practice by reason for prescribing. More results can be found in the infographic.
About the research
We use the participating general practices of Nivel Zorgregistraties Eerste Lijn to determine the figures. Depending on the year, between 196 and 281 general practices were included in the analyses, which registered an ICPC code for at least 30% of the prescriptions.
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