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[The consumption of psychoactive drugs in primary care]
R Mateo Fernández1, O Rupérez Cordero, M A Hernando Blázquez
1Areas X y XI, INSALUD, Madrid.
Objectives:
To determine the prevalence of the consumption of psychiatric drugs (PD) among people attending the clinic and to relate that consumption to their sociodemographic characteristics and the presence of psychiatric symptoms.
Design:
Crossover descriptive study.
Setting:
Primary Care.
Patients:
350 patients over 14, chosen at random from among those who attended the clinic over an eight-week period.
Interventions:
1) Questionnaire on sociodemographic data and PD consumption; 2) Self-filling of the GHQ-60 (cut-off point 10/11); and 3) Review of the clinical records to determine the kind of PD, dosage, prescriber, chronic illnesses and the number of consultations over the previous year.
Results:
301 (86%) completed the study, 21% consumed PDs. 82% were women. The most consumed PDs were: benzodiazepine (74%) and anti-depressives (34%).
Conclusions:
There is a high percentage of PD consumers among people who attend the clinic, especially among women, elderly people, the chronically ill, people living alone and those inactive outside the home. The most commonly used pharmacological group was the benzodiazepines. Almost half the patients had psychiatric symptoms, especially those who lived alone and had no activity outside the home.