THE PRESCRIPTION OF PSYCHOTROPIC-DRUGS IN PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE

We followed the prescription of psychotropic drugs by primary health c are physicians over a 3-year period. The material consisted of 1000 ra ndomly selected adult primary health care patients. At least one psych otropic drug was prescribed to one third (n = 307) of the sample durin g the follow-up period. The most commonly used drug category was that of benzodiazepines, which was prescribed to 24% of the sample. An anti depressive was prescribed to 8%, a neuroleptic to 2% and ''other psych otropic drugs'' to 10% of the sample. The most important predictor for prescribing psychotropic drugs was recognition of mental problems at the initial survey, but age and marital status also had an association with the prescription. No gender difference was found after controlli ng for mental problems. Psychotropic medication was also prescribed to 13% of the patients who had no sign of mental disorder.