ANPE A pharmacy employee looks at the stock in a pharmacy

NOS News•today, 7:59 PM•Adjusted today, 9:48 PM

• Anouk Lambregts

  editor Online

• Anouk Lambregts

  editor Online

There is a serious shortage of the drug Zypadhera in psychiatric care, reports the National Medicines Coordination Center (LCG). Zypadhera is used by people with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. The drug is often prescribed in high doses and administered by injection.

Due to the shortage, patients have to switch medications more often, which can cause a lot of stress and uncertainty. This increases the risk of ending up in psychosis. There is also the risk that people stop taking medication, due to stress or because they do not like another medication. This also increases the risk of psychosis.

Stress also plays a major role in the environment of patients. Bert Stuivenuiter from patient association Mind Ypsilon emphasizes this. “Patients sometimes receive the drug without seeing the need for it. Others receive it as forced treatment. They may not understand the seriousness of a deficiency, but their families and environment do,” says Stuivenuiter.

In the Netherlands, about 1,400 people use Zypadhera. Not only they are affected by the shortage, but also patients who had not yet started taking it. They are fishing behind the net because the limited stock is reserved for the most severe cases.

What is a psychosis?

People with psychosis suffer from confused thinking and perception. “People can get delusions or hallucinations. They interpret reality differently,” says Bert Luteijn, psychiatrist at GGZ Rivierduinen. “They exhibit confused and chaotic behavior, and are anxious and irritable.”

In extreme cases, people in psychosis are aggressive, and therefore sometimes a danger to themselves or the environment. “Having the right medicines in stock is an absolute necessity.”

Changing medication is also complicated in practice. Hospital pharmacist Nicole Hunfeld calls such a mandatory switch very annoying. “You have a certain amount of medicine in your blood. You simply cannot reduce or change that amount.”

“It is risky to simply switch medications,” says psychiatrist Bert Luteijn. “Whether a medicine works for someone is very personal, and figuring that out takes time.” He says shortages often come as a surprise, eliminating the time that is actually needed for a new treatment plan.

Hunfeld, who is also a board member of the KNMP pharmacy organization, agrees. “You are always surprised. Your stock for a certain medicine falls below a limit, you go to order and then it turns out that it is not there. Then you are actually already too late,” she says. “Companies only report to the KNMP when the shortage already exists.”

Counting ampoules

The Zypadhera shortage is not an isolated incident: the KNMP previously sounded the alarm about the record number of drug shortages that occurred in 2022. Hunfeld emphasizes the seriousness. “It may seem normal because it happens so often these days. But the fact that the LCG is raising the alarm is serious and should not become normal.”

Zypadhera may be imported from abroad until March 15 through a ‘shortage decision’ by the Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate. However, the medicine is also available to a limited extent there.

That is also the reason that the LCG recommends adjusting patient treatments. “It’s a global problem,” says Hunfeld. “I have also been counting ampoules for other medicines this week to see if I can make it this week.”

2024-01-18 18:59:41
#shortage #schizophrenia #medicine #patients #suffer