Pharmacoepidemiology research: Drug therapy and drug safety in mental health

It is necessary to conduct research that will serve as a foundation for pharmacotherapy for patients with mental illnesses. Digital data are widely available, which has facilitated pharmacoepidemiology and, in particular, observational studies on the efficacy of real-world medications. The availability of large patient samples and the availability to study understudied subpopulations in their natural settings are benefits of pharmacoepidemiological research. This type of research is also less expensive and takes less time to complete than randomized controlled trials, making it more likely to address issues relating to long-term outcomes, generic medication, and stopping medication (deprescribing). We can expand Pharmacoepidemiological techniques to pharmacovigilance and use them to help the development of medicines that are already on the market. The non-randomized nature of treatment selection, which causes confounding by indication, is a drawback of observational pharmacoepidemiological studies. Active comparison groups, within-individual designs, and propensity scoring are potential solutions to this problem. To increase confidence in the inferred causal relationships, it has strengthened many of the more rigorous pharmacoepidemiology studies through the triangulation of multiple analytical approaches. It is encouraging that guidelines are considering evidence from reliable observational pharmacoepidemiological studies besides randomized controlled trials considering advancements in data resources and analytical methods. cooperation among pharmacoepidemiology researchers and guideline writers may enable researchers to respond that important policymakers' questions and guarantee that findings are included in the evidence base. To fully capitalize on future opportunities, it will be necessary to advance statistical and data science techniques, general engagement, and capacity building (data resources and researcher base).

Keywords:

Pharmacoepidemiology , mental health , pharmacovigilance