title: The prescription of psychotropic drugs in primary health care.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joukamaa
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sohlman
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lehtinen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs