Abstract
Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Anti-psychotic medications are available in India since a long time. These drugs are capable of causing a number of ADR some of which may be fatal. Also polypharmacy is one of the leading cause of ADR in psychiatry patients. Thus our aim was to evaluate the demographic factors and drug utilization pattern in psychiatric illness patients. It is a questionnaire based prospective-observational study. This study included hospital out-patients treated in psychiatric department. Data was collected from the medical records of out-patients and patient interviews. The diagnosis was made according to DSM-IV criteria. A total of 201 patients were enrolled in the study, 65.2% patients belongs to age group of 18-40 years; male patients were more in number. In patients history, it was revealed that family problems and trauma were the main reasons for their present illness; also some childhood neurotic traits was assessed in patients. 77 patients were diagnosed with Mood disorders and 74 patients were diagnosed with Anxiety disorders. Out of 435 drugs prescribed, 145 drugs are anti-depressants, 97 anxiolytics, 87 antipsychotics, 16 anti-cholinergics and 32 anti-manic drugs. In the study, two drug regimen was used more commonly. Thus the study should be conducted in a large number of patients as it can assess more risk factors, their pre-morbid conditions and childhood neurotic traits. Also it can assess the therapy which helps to know the rationality.
