KEY WORDS: drug information, psychotropics.

OBJECI1VE: To undertake a qualitative analysis of calls regarding psychotropic drugs that were received during a national medicines phone-in day. BACKGROUND: In July 1996,The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia coordinated a national medications phone-in day, allowing consumers to seek information about medications from pharmacists and physicians using a toll-free telephone number. METIlODS: Data collection forms were used to record the details of all calls answered during the phone-in day. Demographic data collected included the estimated age and gender of the caller. Other data collected included the drugs that were the subject of the inquiry and the category of questions. RFSULTS: There were 42 096 attempted connections to the service, but because of limited telecommunications capacity, only 2245 callers were successfully connected. Psychotropic drugs were th