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Psychotropic drug utilization and audit in two Italian psychiatric services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Giovanni De Girolamo ,
Paul Williams  and
Vincenzo Cappiello
Giovanni De Girolamo*
Affiliation:
Servizi Psichiatrici, Cremona, Italy; Institute of Psychiatry, London; Postgraduate School of Psychiatry, 2nd Medical School, University of Naples, Italy
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr G. de Girolamo, Servizi Psichiatrici, USSL 51, 26100 Cremona, Italy.
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Synopsis

The utilization of psychotropic drugs is a topic of increasing interest. This paper describes a study of psychotropic drug use in two acute psychiatric in-patient services in Cremona, northern Italy. Almost all patients surveyed received one or more psychotropic drugs, and there was evidence of a substantial level of polypharmacy. Women patients were prescribed more psychotropic drugs than the men, while the relationship between drug prescription and psychiatric diagnosis differed between the two services. During the second phase of the study, the medical staff were aware that their prescribing was being monitored. However, this knowledge appeared to have little effect on their patterns of prescribing. The findings of Barton (1978) are thus not supported.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , November 1987 , pp. 989 - 997
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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