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The prescription of psychotropic drugs in primary health care
Author(s) -
Joukamaa M.,
Sohlman B.,
Lehtinen V.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1995.tb09597.x
Subject(s) - medical prescription , psychotropic drug , medicine , psychiatry , mental health , psychotropic medication , primary care , marital status , primary health care , drug , family medicine , pharmacology , population , environmental health
We followed the prescription of psychotropic drugs by primary health care physicians over a 3‐year period. The material consisted of 1000 randomly selected adult primary health care patients. At least one psychotropic drug was prescribed to one third ( n = 307) of the sample during the follow‐up period. The most commonly used drug category was that of benzodiazepines, which was prescribed to 24% of the sample. An antidepressive was prescribed to 8%, a neuroleptic to 2% and “other psychotropic drugs” to 10% of the sample. The most important predictor for prescribing psychotropic drugs was recognition of mental problems at the initial survey, but age and marital status also had an association with the prescription. No gender difference was found after controlling for mental problems. Psychotropic medication was also prescribed to 13% of the patients who had no sign of mental disorder.