Psychoactive-drug use among adolescents with psychiatric disorders

Demographic and medical data and data on the use of prescribed and illicit psychoactive drugs were collected retrospectively from medical records of patients admitted for the first time to the adolescent unit of a psychiatric hospital between July 1974 and June 1984. The frequency with which adolescents used prescribed and illicit drugs before admission, during hospitalization, and at discharge from the facility was examined. Data were analyzed for the entire study period and for three time intervals within the 10-year period. Of 204 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17, 52% were male and 86% were white. The percentage of patients using prescribed psychoactive agents increased during the study period, with the third time interval (1982-84) accounting for the majority of the increase. The use of antidepressants significantly increased over the 10-year period while the use of neuroleptic agents remained fairly constant. Use of at least one illicit drug before admission to the psychiatric facility was reported by 45% of the patient population studied; marijuana was the most frequently used illicit drug. The prescribing patterns reported may be related primarily to individual variation among prescribers. Other factors possibly influencing these prescribing patterns include improved history-taking over the time period studied and less resistance to taking psychoactive medications.