Simulated discharge system of prescription and long-term drug treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

The drug sheets of patients resident in a psychiatric hospital for more than 1 year were reviewed. The simulated discharge system involving the re-writing of drug sheets every 12 weeks was in operation, but there was only a slight increase in prescription changes at the time of renewal; 35.4% of prescriptions had been unchanged for 1 year and 4.3% for 5 years. A high proportion of long-term prescriptions were for purgatives, hypnotics and neuroleptics.