Diagnoses associated with the prescription of psychotropic drugs at a Swedish health centre.

Data on drug prescribing to residents of the municipality of Tierp in 1978 were linked to data on visits to the Tierp health centre in order to examine which diagnoses were associated with psychotropic drug prescribing. The diagnostic patterns were analyzed with respect to sex, age, and level of drug use of patients. Only one quarter of the patients for whom psychotropic drugs were prescribed in connection with a visit to the health centre were also given a psychiatric diagnosis. Even among those patients who were prescribed five or more psychotropic drugs, only four out of ten had a psychiatric diagnosis. Among those patients who were prescribed an antidepressant, only six out of ten had a psychiatric diagnosis. A relation between psychotropic drug use and certain non-psychiatric diagnoses such as hypertension, diabetes and ischaemic heart disease was observed.