Psychotropic drug prescribing in a family medicine residency program

The records of 201 patients in a family medicine training clinic were examined for frequency of prescription of psychotropic drugs. It was found that 11.5 percent (23/201 patients) had received a psychotropic drug over an average clinic visit time of 2 1/2 years. Patients were primarily female (2:1), with the socioeconomic status skewed towards the lower end, and with patient age ranging from 18 to 87 years. It was found that most psychotropic drugs were prescribed for short periods of time, with the prescriptions ranging from 1 month to 4 1/2 years. That only 11.5 percent of patients received a psychotropic drug was lower than expected. The clinic's conceptualization of the role of psychotropic drugs, the different approach utilized in data collection, or characteristics of the "training" setting, may account for these phenomena.