A protocol to assess antipsychotics prescribing and physical health monitoring in children and young people: a cohort study using primary care data from QResearch

Antipsychotic medicines are prescribed to children and young people (CYP) with mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, behavioural disorders, autism spectrum disorder and tics. The physical side effects of these medicines require monitoring, and this responsibility can be transferred to primary care. This study will describe the trends in antipsychotic prescribing in CYP, identify the mental health conditions, symptoms and comorbidities associated with the prescriptions, and determine the extent of physical health monitoring in primary care both for CYP prescribed antipsychotics and those with mental health conditions without antipsychotic prescriptions. The study will use data from QResearch, a large, anonymised, UK primary care electronic health record database. Records will be linked to secondary care data from hospital episode statistics and socioeconomic deprivation information. People aged 5 to 17 years, who are registered with GPs in England contributing to QResearch between 1 January 2006 and 31 July 2021 will be included. Incidence and prevalence rates will be calculated over the study period, and Poisson regression will be used to estimate incidence rate ratios. Results from this study will identify where improvements to clinical practice or to treatment guidelines may be needed.