Antipsychotic medications are used for the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The aim of our study was to assess the off-label use of atypical antipsychotics (AA) in the Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU), Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Hospital records of 105 consecutive patients that were admitted to the CIU in the period of 4 months (June – September 2007) were included to the retrospective observational study. Patients were screened for diagnosis (ICD-10), gender, age, suicidal behavior and for prescribed psychotropic medications. Off-label use of atypical antipsychotics for diagnoses other than psychosis was evaluated. We noted which specific antipsychotics were prescribed for specific diagnoses with their daily dosages transformed to chlorpromazine units (CPU).

Most patients suffered for stress related disorders (48%), depression (32%), anxiety disorders (14%) and other disorders (6%). Gender ratio was in favour of women (77%). Average age of patients was 52,1 years. 27% of patients were admitted after the suicide attempt, 46% reported suicidal thoughts. Off-label use of AA was noted in 65% of patients who suffered from stress related disorders, in 36% of patients with depression and in 49% of patients with anxiety disorders.

Our results show that atypical antipsychotics are widely used for indications other than psychosis, even though the long-term effects of their use are not yet known and safety issues remain to be examined further.