General Practitioners ' Indications for Psychotropic Drugs

In the present study, an examination has been made of the indications for the prescription of psychotropic drugs in general practice. The study was prompted by the extensive consumption of these drugs that has be-come apparent within a comparatively short time after their introduction. The hypotheses were that psycho-tropic drugs are largely prescribed for somatic diseases, and for "non-medical " problems. The study is based on information obtained by questionnaire, from 47 gen-eral practitioners. The data obtained supported the first hypothesis. More than one-half of the psychotropic drugs were found to have been prescribed for somatic diseases. The data obtained did not provide direct sup-port for the second hypothesis, but this may have been attributable to the method applied. It is highly probable that a doctor, in completing a questionnaire, would give a medical diagnosis for a "non-medical " problem. This study suggests that one mechanism of the in-creased utilization of psychotropic drugs is the broad-ened field of indications. Although psychotropic drugs, apart from barbi-turates and some other hypnotics, have only been available for a short period, since the 1950s, their utilization has rapidly reached remarkable propor-tions; various studies have shown that from 7 to 24 % 'of all prescriptions include such drugs (3