This study show that within a general hospital outpatient setting, the prescription of psychotropic medication is mainly confined to the anti-anxiety drugs and and secondarily to the hypnotics. There is a conspicuous absence of prescription for antipsychotic drugs and negligible use of antidepressants. The use of anti-anxiety drugs and hypnotics was higher in the general outpatient clinic than in the psychiatric outpatient clinic in the same hospital. This finding is in the trend of similar findings by others that non-psychiatrists prescribe more psychotropic medication including an-anxiety and hypnotic medication. In this study the use of psychotropic medication for patient generated psychiatric symptomalogy was only in 14.5% of cases prescribed these medication. The anti-anxiety drugs were prescribed as adjuncts in non-psychiatric conditions as well. Frequent use as adjuncts were in the treatment of muscular tension and in chronic cardiovascular disorders. There is a core of patients (20%) that had been continuously prescribed medication up to a period of 5 years. Half of these were chronic cardiovascular patients and half presented with no demonstrable systemic organicity. None had been referred to psychiatrist.
Study site: Outpatient clinic, general hospital, Malaysia