title: Therapeutic drug monitoring: perspectives of psychiatrists in Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although the medical and economic implications of therapeutic drug monitoring have been intensely discussed over the past years, little is known about the experiences and attitudes of psychiatrists in their clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate psychiatrists' daily practice with therapeutic drug monitoring in Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  A nation-wide cross-sectional survey among adult and child psychiatry specialist psychiatrists in Turkey was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that 98.4% (n = 380) of the study participants used TDM in clinical practice and 1.6% (n = 6) did not. However, TDM use is limited to mood stabilizers (lithium 96.3%, valproate 97.6%) to a great extent. Only a small number of psychiatrists perform TDM for other psychotropic drugs, e.g., clozapine 2.4%, tricyclic antidepressants 1.3%, benzodiazepines 1.1%, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors 0,8%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most of the psychiatrists in Turkey have a positive attitude toward use of therapeutic drug monitoring although there is also a considerable difficulty to reach services for the therapeutic drug monitoring of psychotropics other than mood stabilizers.
authors.affiliation: Uskudar University Neuropsychiatry Hospital, Psychiatry , Istanbul , Turkey.
authors.forename: Gul
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eryılmaz
authors.forename: Gökben
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hızlı Sayar
authors.forename: Işıl Göğcegöz
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Gül
authors.forename: Cemal Onur
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Noyan
authors.forename: Eylem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Özten
authors.forename: Aslı Enes
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Darçın
authors.forename: Özgür
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Yorbik
authors.forename: Nesrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dilbaz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: Psychiatrists; psychotropic; survey; therapeutic drug monitoring