Prescribing activity during a period of self-audit

Prescription forms were obtained for 34 doctors who had been involved in a self-audit of psychotropic prescribing using the practice activity analysis method during the last week of February and the first of March, 1980. The forms were provided by the UK Prescription Pricing Authority after the consent of the participating doctors had been obtained. For 11 of the recorders (group 1) prescription forms were available for February and for the remaining 23 (group 2) for March. For group 1 recorders the two control weeks in the study preceded the observation week and for group 2 recorders they followed it. The total number of prescription forms issued, the number including a psychotropic drug and the number including an antibiotic were compared in the respective observation and control weeks. In group 1 there were uniform reductions of all prescribing during the observation period as compared with the controls. The reduction was attributed to a shortfall in prescription forms identified in the last week of the month. In group 2 there were no differences. The pattern of prescribing indicated by the proportions of drugs in the various categories was consistent throughout. Thus the task of undertaking self-audit did not appear to influence the underlying activity audited.