Premium
PRESCRIPTION OF PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS BY GENERAL PRACTITIONERS: 1. GENERAL
Author(s) -
ROWE IAN L.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1973.tb110571.x
Subject(s) - medical prescription , medicine , psychotropic drug , general practice , barbiturate , psychiatry , family medicine , general hospital , drug , pharmacology
Prescriptions of psychotropic drugs by general practitioners have been studied in detail by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, from data provided for the Australian Morbidity Survey by 796 doctors, recording for one week each during a 12‐month period from April, 1970, to March, 1971. The survey has revealed that original prescriptions of psychotropic drugs by all general practitioners in Australia numbered more than 3–5 million, and sedatives and hypnotics nearly five million. More than half these prescriptions were written for mental disorders, but a significant number were for other conditions. The use of the various drugs for the common mental disorders is presented. A trend from barbiturates to psychotropic drugs, particularly diazepam, and non‐barbiturate hypnotics is demonstrated. Factors which influence prescribing by general practitioners are discussed, and some NHS restrictions are criticized.