Drug Utilization Study of Psychotropic Drugs among Psychiatric Outpatients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Availability and utilization of a wide variety of psychotropic drugs is associated with a wide spectrum of adverse drug reactions. To ensure the rational use of psychotropic drugs, it is imperative to monitor their pattern of use. The present study mainly focuses on the pattern of utilization of psychotropic drugs among psychiatric outpatients in a tertiary care hospital. A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out in the psychiatry outpatient department from January to December 2012. A total of 600 cases were studied. Demographic and drug related information was collected. With respect to the psychotropic drug utilization, sedative-hypnotics (42.9 %) were the most commonly prescribed group of psychotropic drugs followed by antidepressants (31.8 %), antipsychotics (19.6 %) and mood stabilizers (5.6 %). Among the sedative hypnotics, clonazepam (51.1 %) and amongst antidepressants, sertraline (28.9 %) and fluoxetine (17.3 %) were the most frequently utilized. The prescription of atypical antipsychotics like risperidone (41 %) and olanzapine (39.8 %) was predominant (95.4 %) over the typical ones. Valproate (54.7 %) was observed to have surpassed the use of lithium (32 %) as a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorders. A substantial increase in the use of anticonvulsants as mood stabilizers was observed. The use of the psychotropic drugs for different indications was in accordance to the current recommendations and guidelines. Newer drugs were being prescribed more often as compared to the conventional medications owing to their better safety and tolerability profiles. The psychotropic drug use in the health facility was a combination of rational and effective practice.