Investigation of antithrombotic drug use in terms of medicine abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic period

Abstract

Google Trends immediately reflect society's changing interest in a variety of topics. This study aimed to examine the use of antithrombotic drugs in terms of medicine abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic using Google Trends data. The words ‘Antithrombotic drugs’, ‘COVID-19’, and ‘Blood Thinner’ were searched for three periods; the COVID-19 pre-pandemic period, the COVID-19 pandemic period, and the COVID-19 vaccination period. The words ‘Antithrombotic drugs’, ‘Aspirin’, ‘Coraspin’, and ‘Plavix’ as antiaggregant, ‘Coumadin', ‘Eliquis’, ‘Pradaxa’, ‘Xarelto’ as anticoagulants were searched comparatively for Turkey and the worldwide. Relative search volumes were evaluated using the GraphPad statistical method. The search volume for ‘Blood Thinner’, ‘Aspirin’, and ‘Coraspin’ increased in other periods compared to the COVID-19 pre-pandemic period. COVID-19 has altered the popularity of antithrombotics both in Turkey and worldwide. As in our study, unconscious drug consumption can be prevented when the tendencies of society, especially on drug-related issues, are determined early with epidemiological studies.