There is an international trend towards an increase in prescriptions for antipsychotics as part of the treatment of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. There is a lack of knowledge on long-term side effects of antipsychotic use, especially in adolescents, as research in this topic mainly has been focused on adult patients.
The ASEP study intents to use data from the Danish registries from the period of 1995-2019, and will thereby investigate children, adolescents and young adults as well, with a patient group spanning from 6 years to 28 years of age.
It is expected that the ASEP study will allow us to estimate the risk of somatic long-term effects in adolescents, who have received antipsychotic treatment. This area of research is currently poorly illuminated, and the results of the study can, among other things, be used in the development of prevention programs, making it possible to reduce or even completely avoid serious side effects and long-term effects of antipsychotic treatment.