[Prescription of psychotropic drugs for schizophrenic outpatients in Hungary].

Unlabelled: The complexity of the acute and maintenance pharmacological interventions is a very important problem in the management of the schizophrenic patients. Antipsychotics are used as target therapy while anxiolytics, hypnotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers can be given as adjunctive treatment. We have evidence based, experimental, anecdotal knowledge about the therapy of schizophrenia but we do not know the facts of the practice. The aim of my study was to evaluate the trends in the prescription of psychotropic drugs for schizophrenic outpatients in Hungary.

Method: A questionnaire has been constructed and been sent to the psychiatrists. The study was blind to the investigator because nor the psychiatrists neither the patients were identified. The patients turned to psychiatrists from 9th to 20th June 2003 were included in the cross-sectional study.

Results: 147 questionnaires were evaluated. 30% of the patients take only one, 35% two and 23% three, 12% four or more kinds of psychotropic drugs simultaneously. Only 6 patients are not given any antipsychotic drugs. About 30% takes some kind of typical (first generation) while 80% atypical (new generation) form and about 15% is on antipsychotic combination therapy. The proportion of depot is 26%. The most frequently used antipsychotics are olanzapine, flupenthixole, clozapine and risperidone. The ranges of the doses show an optimal use. 45.6% of the patients is on anxiolytic, 19% on any kind of antidepressant and 11% on hypnotic drug and only 4.1% on any kind of mood stabilizers. The data of duration of therapy show that the rate of switch an antipsychotic to another for one year before the index time is low (30%) but about 8.8% of the patients are on the same antidepressant and 21.1% on the same anxiolytic drug in that period. There are no gender differences in the therapy.

Conclusion: The results show the current trends of pharmacological treatment of schizophrenic outpatients in Hungary. The data of the study are comparable with international trends, professional expectation and the new evaluations in the future.