Dear all

Thank you for visiting the website of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP), the largest and longest running international collaboration in the field of psychiatry in Asia. Kobe University School of Medicine and Center for International Exchange in Medical Research organized an international symposium on neuropsychiatry in December 1999 in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Singapore under the auspices of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). At the meeting, it was pointed out that psychotropic drug prescribing differed greatly among the participating Asian countries, and an international collaborative study on psychotropic drug prescribing for hospitalized schizophrenic patients in Asia was proposed.

An international collaborative study using a unified research protocol and questionnaire was conducted in 2001 in six countries: China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Since then, nine international collaborative studies have been conducted from 2001 to the present: four studies on prescribing in hospitalized schizophrenic patients in Asian countries, and two studies on antidepressant prescribing. The 2016 survey of prescribing in schizophrenic patients included the above 10 countries plus Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, for a total of 15 countries. A total of 15 countries participated. More than 60 psychiatric facilities that serve as centers for education and research in Asia participated.

In FY 2018, a survey on bipolar disorder was conducted. In addition, in 2019, a survey using case vignettes of schizophrenic patients was conducted among psychiatrists in 34 countries.
A third antidepressant prescribing survey will be conducted in 11 countries in 2023, and more than 5,000 prescriptions are currently being analyzed.

We would like to ask for your support and cooperation.
We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to the Asian researchers who have supported REAP to date.

Overall coordinators
Takahiro Kato (Fukuoka)
Shih-ku Lin (Taipei)

Representatives
Naotaka Shinfuku (Kobe)
Tan Chay Hoon (Singapore)

November 2022