The psychological therapies service (PTS) in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, in Northern Ireland, provides therapies to adults with moderate or severe mental health difficulties. Psychometric outcomes data are routinely collected to assess if a patient demonstrates significant improvement in their main presenting problem area following therapy. The wider impact of therapy is not fully measured in the outcomes database as this would be disproportionately burdensome for both patient and therapist. The present study, to our knowledge, is the first to use data linkage to link patient therapy outcomes data with prescriptions data.

To widen our understanding of patient medication use before and after therapy.

Using Health and Care Number as a unique identifier, the Psychological Therapies Service – Routine Outcome Measurement Database (n = 3625) and data from 72 500 controls were linked with data from the Enhanced Prescribing Database (EPD). The EPD data were sourced from the Honest Broker Service.

Key findings from the study were: (a) the odds of PTS clients using antipsychotics in the year before therapy were 25 times greater compared with controls (odds ratio (OR) = 24.53, 95% CI 20.16–29.84); (b) in the 1st year post discharge, PTS clients who clinically improved post therapy discharge were more likely than ‘non-engagers’ and ‘non-improvers’ to come off antianxiety medication (OR = 0.61, 95%, CI 0.38–0.98); and (c) therapy did not have an impact on antidepressant use.

The results highlight the need for discussion between therapy services, GPs and psychiatry about whether more engagement and collaboration is needed to plan phased reduction in medication.

北爱尔兰北部健康和社会关怀信托基金的心理治疗服务 (PTS) 为患有中度或重度心理健康问题的成年人提供治疗。定期收集心理测量结果数据，以评估患者在治疗后的主要问题领域是否表现出显着改善。结果数据库中并未充分衡量治疗的更广泛影响，因为这对患者和治疗师来说都会造成不成比例的负担。据我们所知，本研究是第一个使用数据链接将患者治疗结果数据与处方数据联系起来的研究。

扩大我们对治疗前后患者用药情况的了解。

使用健康和护理号码作为唯一标识符，心理治疗服务 – 常规结果测量数据库 ( n = 3625) 和来自 72 500 名对照者的数据与增强处方数据库 (EPD) 的数据相链接。环保署的数据源自诚实经纪服务公司。

该研究的主要发现是：(a) PTS 患者在治疗前一年使用抗精神病药物的几率是对照组的 25 倍（比值比 (OR) = 24.53，95% CI 20.16–29.84）；(b) 在出院后第一年，治疗出院后临床改善的 PTS 客户比“非参与者”和“非改善者”更有可能停止服用抗焦虑药物（OR = 0.61, 95%, CI 0.38–0.98 ）；(c) 治疗对抗抑郁药物的使用没有影响。

结果强调，治疗服务、全科医生和精神病学之间需要进行讨论，以确定是否需要更多的参与和合作来计划分阶段减少用药。