Utilisation of psychotropic drugs in patients of the long stay ward.
A survey of the prescribing of psychotropic drugs was carried out at the Psychiatric Hospital of Bahrain.  This retrospective study on 60 inpatients of the Long Stay Ward revealed a man:woman ratio of 2.7.  91% of the men and 88% of the women were over 40 years old.  44 of the 60 patients had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the rest had dementia, depression, schizoaffective disorders, drug-induced psychosis, general paralysis or Huntington's chorea.  95% of patients received antipsychotic drugs.  Thioridazine was the most common drug followed by chlorpromazine.  The mean number of drugs/patient was 1.7, with 41.7% of patients receiving only 1 drug.  Tardive dyskinesia was observed in 11 patients and 9 experienced varying degrees of tremor.  The findings confirm that psychiatric illness treated by psychiatrists need not lead to polypharmacy.  As a consequence, its treatment may be less likely to result in adverse reactions than when patients are treated by general practitioners.
Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain and College of Medicine, Arabian Gulf University.
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F
El Hefny
M K
MK
Al Haddad
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V
Mathur
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001445:Bahrain; D004363:Drug Utilization; D004409:Dyskinesia, Drug-Induced; D005260:Female; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011570:Psychiatry; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000191:economics / Q000494:pharmacology; D012189:Retrospective Studies