[Prescriptions for antidepressants in a population of psychiatrists and non-psychiatrists].
OBJECTIVE
Much proof has been accumulated over the last decade demonstrating that depression is a major public health issue. Use of psychotropics and more precisely antidepressants is considered to be excessive. It is however paradoxical that prescribing antidepressants has become commonplace. The aim of this study was to better assess the process of prescribing antidepressants in the hospital setting.


METHODS
An epidemiological study was carried out to examine prescribing practices used by psychiatrists and non psychiatrists working in the Rennes University Hospital. The psychiatrist population was used as the reference population for univariate and multivariate analysis designed to ascertain differences concerning prescription practices.


RESULTS
Duration of the clinical examination (shortest for non-psychiatric physicians, p = 0.0001), use of a diagnostic scale (more frequently for psychiatrists, p = 0.0008), reasons for choosing an antidepressant (pharmacological considerations more frequent among psychiatrists, p = 0.0009), and co-therapies (neuroleptic association more frequent among psychiatrists, p = 0.0001) were found to be different between the two prescribing populations.


CONCLUSIONS
All patients with signs of depression are not necessarily given optimal care. Errors in assessing antidepressants is probably a common problem.
Schück
S
S
Laboratoire de Pharmacologie expérimentale et clinique, CHRU de Rennes.
Allain
H
H
Lebeux
P
P
Chaperon
J
J
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011570:Psychiatry; D012044:Regression Analysis
D000928:Antidepressive Agents