Psychopharmacological Prescribing Patterns in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa: Evidence of Increased Treatment Intensity Compared with Psychiatric Controls

Introduction This database includes the raw data linked with the paper “Psychopharmacological Prescribing Patterns in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa: Evidence of Increased Treatment Intensity Compared with Psychiatric Controls”. In this paper, we aimed to compare psychopharmacological prescribing patterns between adolescents with Anorexia nervosa (AN) and psychiatric controls without AN, examining the likelihood of receiving any psychotropic medication, specific psychotropic drug classes, and polypharmacy (defined as the prescription of two or more psychotropic drug classes), while accounting for psychiatric comorbidities and recruiting site. Methods The study included 298 help-seeking female patients aged 12-18 years (M = 15.3 ± 1.42) who were admitted to two Italian Child Neurology and Psychiatry Units, one in the north and one in the south, between 2017 and 2025. We classified participants into two groups according to their diagnoses: a group of patients affected by Anorexia Nervosa or Atypical Anorexia Nervosa (AN group), and a control group (CG) of patients with psychiatric disorders but without any past or present eating disorder diagnosis. Results (in brief) Psychotropic medication use was common in the sample and was more frequent among CG in unadjusted analyses. In multivariable models, AN diagnosis was not independently associated with the prescription of any psychotropic medication, antipsychotics, or antidepressants. In contrast, adolescents with AN showed a significantly higher likelihood of receiving benzodiazepines and polypharmacy compared with controls. Polypharmacy was also independently associated with psychotic disorders/symptoms, personality disorders, and depressive disorders.