[Analysis of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs in a psychiatric hospital].

A study on the prescription of psychotropic drugs was carried out at St-Egreve Psychiatric Hospital (Isère,--France) based on in-patient prescriptions (adults only). Analysis of the 200 prescriptions issued by 26 different practitioners found an average of 3.3 psychotropic drugs per patient (including 1.7 neuroleptics). A combination of neuroleptics was very frequent (63 pour cent of the schizophrenics receiving at least 2 neuroleptics). Half of the patients treated with neuroleptics received antiparkinsonian drugs. The other psychotropic medications often combined with neuroleptics, were anxiolytics (50 per cent), hypnotics (45 per cent), antidepressants (28 per cent) and normothymics (25 per cent). Among the antidepressants, the SSRI were the most commonly prescribed, even above tricyclics, reflecting their better clinical tolerance. The significant differences in prescribing practice between the services prompted the creation of a working group comprising practitioners and pharmacists to study the prescription of psychotropic drugs and compare this with the literature.