When Did the Use of Psychotropic Drugs Start to Escalate?

Abstract

The introduction of new drugs is often characterized as an important cause of increased use of psychotropic drugs. Major new drugs were introduced in the 1950s. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the introduction of these new drugs affected consumption levels in several European countries in the 1950s. New data were collected and analysed from two pharmacies in Finland and previously published data from Denmark, England, Wales, and Sweden were reanalysed. The trends as well as the level of the psychotropic drug consumption varied greatly between these countries. In Finland and Sweden consumption increased greatly. No trend information was available in Denmark; the consumption level, however, was apparently much higher than in Finland or Sweden. In England and WAles consumption was steady. The data from Finland showed that increased consumption was due to the use of traditional sedatives rather than to the new drugs. Our results suggest that the increase in the consumption of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s was not due to the introduction of new drugs as such.