Pharmaco-epidemiology of drugs utilized in psychiatry department of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, Karnataka

The choice of psychotropic medication and there pattern of use in treating patients with psychiatric disorders are undergoing proformed and rapid changes. In the last decades psychotropic drugs have assumed a growing importance in the daily lives of millions of people. The case for appropriate use of psychotropic drugs in general practice is over whelming but treatment with these drugs should always be scientific, specific and limited. Study design: Prospective observational and analytical; Study duration: Six months; Source of data: Hospital pharmacy and medical record section, Kasturba medical college and Hospital, Manipal; Sample size: 506; Analysis was done in this study for the basis of Most frequently used drug; Age distribution; Indications; Co-prescribed psychotropic drugs; Statistical analysis has been done using graph-pad package, graphs were prepared using Microsoft Excel Package. Overall 506 prescriptions were collected in this study. Use of Psychotropic medication was almost same as in case of males (51.38%) and females (48.62%). Anti-depressants were the drugs most commonly used (43.2%), anxiolytics (21.3%) were the second most common psychotropic medication used. Anti-psychotics (20.1%) were much less commonly used and anti-manics (15.2%) were the least commonly used psychotropic medication.