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PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS IN A HOSPITAL FOR INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: THE STORY OF 18 YEARS
Author(s) -
Etherington J.,
Sheppard L. C.,
Ballinger B. R.,
Fenton G. W.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
mental handicap research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 0952-9608
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3148.1995.tb00154.x
Subject(s) - polypharmacy , psychotropic agent , psychotropic medication , medicine , psychiatry , population , intellectual disability , psychotropic drug , pediatrics , drug , mental health , environmental health
Psychotropic prescribing was surveyed over an 18‐year period in an intellectual disability hospital between 1972 and 1990. The number of inpatients fell from 605 to 242 but the proportion receiving psychotropic drugs rose from 33% to 47% widi an increase in die percentage of the population receiving neuroleptics and lidiium. Polypharmacy applied to 29% of the patients receiving psychotropic drugs in 1990. The changes in prescribing may be partly related to the increased proportion of individuals with more severe psychiatric symptomatology in the population.