THE USE OF SEDATIVE HYPNOTIC DRUGS IN A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN SAUDI-ARABIA

Sedative-hypnotic drugs (SHD) involve mainly benzodiazepines and barbi turates. For nonhospitalized patients, they are mostly prescribed by g eneral practitioners to patients who are physically ill. In hospitals, most of the patients receiving these drugs are psychiatric patients. This study aims at describing patterns of prescribing these drugs in S audi Arabia that may be different from that in other countries due to greater legal restriction on psychotropic medications in general. It i s a retrospective analysis of charts of the first 100 patients admitte d to King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) from 1 January 1989 to the medical, surgical, psychiatric, and obstetric and gynecology wards. T he results are compared to a methodologically similar study from Canad a. Generally, SHDs were more frequently prescribed in Canada than in S audi Arabia. Most of the SHDs were prescribed in the surgical ward and most of the indications in both studies were medical. These and other findings are discussed in the context of cultural aspects in Saudi Ar abia.