[Profile of prescription of psychotropic drugs in a National Fund of Social Foresight Organisation in Morocco].
BACKGROUND
Psychotropic drugs have undergone significant development in the last few years and their prescription is no longer limited to psychiatrists alone but also to other specialists and general practitioners. In Morocco, many topical questions arise regarding the profile of the prescription of psychotropic drugs.


METHODS
of the study. The present work is a transverse epidemiological study carried out by the CNOPS (National Fund of Social Foresight Organisations) consisting on the random selection of prescriptions drawn-up during the year 1997. The research work consisted at first in making the whole prescriptions including at least one psychotropic drug. Subsequently, we considered various parameters (age, gender, number and family of psychotropic drugs, prescriber, associations between psychotropic drugs...).


RESULTS
Four percent of prescriptions included at least one psychotropic drug, 64.1% included one psychotropic drug and more than 33% included 2 to 3 psychotropic drugs. We have noticed a slight female predominance and half of the prescribed psychotropics was prescribed to patients aged between 40 and 60 years. General practitioners ranked first among doctors who prescribed psychotropic drugs (27.7%) followed by psychiatric-s (19%). Among psychotic-type drugs, anxiolytics dominated in the prescriptions (44.9%) followed by neuroleptics (25.2%), antidepressants (18.7%) and finally hypnotics (3%). Women consumed more anxiolytics and antidepressants than men. Among prescriptions drawn-up by general practitioners 52.4% were composed of anxiolytics. Psychiatrists prescribed neuroleptics in 35.3% of cases, then anxiolytics in 35.2%, and antidepressants in 28.7% of cases. Hypnotics concerned only 2.2% of their prescriptions. For the other specialists, the majority of prescriptions were for anxiolytics. Monotherapy was respected in 64.1% of cases. Antidepressants were combined associated with anxiolytics in more than 55% of cases.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychotropic drugs are prescribed more by general practitioners than by psychiatric-s, and anxiolytics constitute the main component of the prescriptions, bearing in mind that women consume more anxiolytics and antidepressants than men.
Belkacem
A
A
Clinique Psychiatrique Universitaire de l'Hôpital Arrazi de Salé, CHU Rabat, Salé, Maroc.
D000328:Adult; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009018:Morocco / Q000453:epidemiology; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012943:Social Security
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs