Attitudes of health professionals towards prescribing psychodrugs

The development of psychodrugs has been an important advancement in the tre atment of mental illnesses. However, they are not yet well accepted by the patients and their families. Most of the population has little or no knowledge of their efficacy, and th e negative experience of some patients have contributed to consider them as dangerous drugs which cause addiction. Various studies report the negative image of psychodrugs, indicating that t hey are tranquilizers with dangerous side effects. There are very few studies on the opinion of health professionals regarding these drugs. Therefore, this study analyses the attitudes of psychiatrists , psychologists and not psychiatric doctors towards psychodrugs, as well as their preference of psychodrug or psychotherapeutic treatments for several mental illnesses. Results show, in general, that the combination of these two types of treatm ents is preferred by psychiatrists and not psychiatric doctors, while psych ologists prefer only psychoterapeutic treatments for some pathologies.