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A Survey of Prescribing of Psychotropic Drugs in a Birmingham Psychiatric Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Stephen Edwards  and
Vinod Kumar
Stephen Edwards*
Affiliation:
All Saints Hospital, Winson Green, Lodge Road, Birmingham B18 5SD
Vinod Kumar
Affiliation:
All Saints Hospital
*
∗Correspondence.
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Summary

Of 603 patients receiving in-patient or day-patient psychiatric care, one-sixth were taking no psychotropic drugs, but nearly 50% of those receiving medication had a combination of two or more such drugs. Hypnotics and minor tranquillisers were frequently prescribed together with neuroleptics and antidepressants. One-third of all patients receiving neuroleptics received a combination of oral and depot preparations, while half of all patients on neuroleptics were prescribed anti-parkinsonian drugs. One-fifth of patients treated with neuroleptics had a diagnosis other than schizophrenia, and one-third of patients treated with antidepressants had a diagnosis other than affective disorder. A comparison of our findings with those from Oxford show some significant differences, particularly in the use of depot, oral, of combined neuroleptic drugs. An analysis of prescribing could be a useful part of self-audit for hospitals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 5 , November 1984 , pp. 502 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

Present address: Senior Registrar, Worcester Royal Infirmary, Newtown Branch, Newtown Road, Worcester WR5 1JG

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