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Relative changes in post-COVID-19 outcomes were expressed as ratios of observed to expected rates.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>After the onset of the pandemic and subsequent COVID-19 mitigation measures, overall medication dispensing rates dropped by 2.4% (p&lt;0.01), followed by a sustained weekly increase to return to predicted levels by the end of January 2021. We observed abrupt level decreases in antibacterials (30.3%, p&lt;0.01) and antivirals (22.4%, p&lt;0.01) that remained below counterfactuals over the first year of the pandemic. In contrast, there was a week-to-week trend increase in nervous system drugs, yielding an overall increase of 7.3% (p&lt;0.01). No trend changes in the dispensing of respiratory system agents, ACE inhibitors, antidiabetic drugs and antidepressants were detected.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic impact on prescription drug dispensing was heterogeneous across medication subgroups. As data become available, dispensing trends in nervous system agents, antibiotics and antivirals warrant further monitoring and investigation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2022-070031","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,10]],"date-time":"2024-01-10T00:33:03Z","timestamp":1704846783000},"page":"e070031","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prescription drug use and costs in British Columbia: a retrospective interrupted time series study"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2544-767X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seraphine","family":"Zeitouny","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kimberlyn","family":"McGrail","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mina","family":"Tadrous","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"},{"name":"Women's College Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9619-9012","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabrina T","family":"Wong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lucy","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5637-6053","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"Law","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025121603074137000_14.1.e070031.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"233","DOI":"10.1007\/s12063-021-00179-y","article-title":"Disruption in global supply chain and socio-economic shocks: a lesson from COVID-19 for sustainable production and consumption","volume":"15","author":"Yu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Oper Manag Res"},{"key":"2025121603074137000_14.1.e070031.2","unstructured":"Mcdonnell A , Pisani E , Mcdonnell A . 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