Psychotropic and cardiovascular medications use among parents of children with special needs

Background

Having a child with special healthcare needs (SN) such as cancer, congenital disorders or other chronic conditions may increase the risk of psychological and cardiovascular distress among parents. However, the scientific evidence on long term use of psychotropic and cardiovascular medications among SN parents remain limited.

Methods

A nationwide cohort of children born in 1987 was constructed using the Finregistry dataset. This study included 103,329 parents of children born in 1987, of whom 2023 had children with SN. Reimbursable prescriptions records from KELA (1995-2019) were analyzed using ATC codes. Psychotropic medications included antidepressants (N06A), antipsychotics (N05A), anxiolytics (N05B), and sedatives (N05C), and cardiovascular medications included ACE inhibitors/ARBs (C09) and stains (C10). Medication data prior to 1995 were not available.

Results

Parents of children with SN showed slightly higher levels of medication use than nonSN parents. Pooled estimates from preliminary descriptive analyses showed that psychotropic medication use was 85.3% among SN parents vs 83.5% among non-SN parents, while cardiovascular medication use was 71.2% versus 68.6%. The usage of medicines increased over time in both groups: psychotropics (SN parents: 16.6% to 47.7%, nonSN parents: 13.9% to 44.4%), cardiovascular medicines (SN parents:10.3% to 65.9%, nonSN parents: 9.6% to 61.8%). Antidepressants were the most used psychotropic medications, followed by sedatives and anxiolytics, and were consistently slightly higher among SN parents.

Conclusions

Parents of children with SN show modestly higher yet consistent use of psychotropic and cardiovascular medicines over time. Although absolute differences between SN and nonSN parents are small, the persistent use may suggest a sustained caregiving burden. Further in-depth analysis, including regression and longitudinal modelling, will be conducted to understand association more rigorously.

Key messages

• Findings support targeted interventions and policies to reduce the caregiving burden on parents of children with special healthcare needs.

• Findings provide population-level evidence of health effects on parents of children with special healthcare needs due to caregiving responsibilities.