Covid and drugs: boom in anxiolytics in 2020

A year of fears and isolation, 2020 marked by the pandemic. States of mind that are reflected even more in the consumption of drugs by the citizen. Looking at class C medicines, anxiolytics stand out, ranking first among the most expensive categories. Spending for these drugs – benzodiazepines – was just over 400 million euros in 2020, with a consumption of 28 doses Ddd (defined daily dose) per day. The increase in both indicators is about 9.5% compared to the previous year, according to the 2020 National Report on the use of medicines in Italy, produced by the National Observatory on the use of medicines (OsMed) of the ‘Italian Medicines Agency Aifa, and presented today. Another ‘family’ of molecules that experienced a real boom in 2020 are antipyretics: in second place, with 294.2 million euros, equal to 9% of total expenditure, are in fact anilides, the category with the greatest increase. (+ 49%) compared to 2019. Other drugs with spending levels exceeding 200 million are those used in erectile dysfunction (212.9 million spending, down 7.9%, and + 5.6% of doses) .