A cross sectional study on prescription patterns of antipsychotic drugs among adults with psychiatric illness in a tertiary care hospital

Importance: Antipsychotic drugs are typically used to treat schizophrenia but they are also helpful for other psychotic symptoms, including manic states with psychotic symptoms including hallucinations, delusions.
Objective: To study the prescribing patterns of antipsychotic drugs among people with psychiatric illness & to study the prescribing factors comparison between elderly and Adolescent’s patients.
Design and Settings: This is a prospective, comparative, cross sectional and observational study conducted on 100 patients in IP and OP psychiatry Department at Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences. In this study, we compared 1st generation antipsychotics with 2nd in prospective of their safety and effectiveness. Study Period: 6 months (Sep 2022- Feb 2023).
Participants: Study population: 100.Study Criteria; Inclusion criteria includes: Adults of age 18-55 years, Geriatrics above 60years. Exclusion criteria includes: Paediatrics, Pregnant women.
Main outcome and measure: 2nd generations antipsychotics are more commonly prescribed as it has more effectiveness and less side effects.
Results: In our study population out of 100 patients, majority of the patients were from the age group of 30-35 years (20%), 25-30 years (17%). Among 100 patients, the most common symptoms were anger (30%), fearfulness (31%), decreased sleep (57%). Majority of the patients have been diagnosed with schizophrenia (26%), mixed anxiety and depressive disorder (26%). Atypical drugs were more commonly prescribed (risperidone 64%, olanzapine 14% and quetiapine 14%) than typical drugs (haloperidol 25%, chlorpromazine 2%).
Conclusion and Relevance: we have observed that there is a greater need for patient education regarding psychiatric illness in order to have better patient outcomes, and providing knowledge regarding medication adherence. In this study, among typical and atypical antipsychotics the later are more commonly prescribed compared to former as it has more effectiveness and less side effects.