Prescribing pattern of antipsychotic drugs in the outpatient department of psychiatry in Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Assam

Objective: To study the prescribing pattern of antipsychotic drugs in the outpatient department of psychiatry in Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) of Assam. Methods: It is a prospective cross-sectional study which was carried out for three months from August to November 2015 in the outpatient department of psychiatry. All patients irrespective of their ages and sexes were included in this study. Inpatients, referred patients, patients not willing to give consent, patients of epilepsy as well as those cases where diagnoses were not certain were excluded from the study. The prescription patterns of antipsychotic drugs and the occurrences of various psychiatric diseases on both the sexes were studied after taking permission from the Institutional Ethical Committee (SMCH). Results: A total of 112 prescriptions were analysed. The most common disease was found to be schizophrenia. Total drugs prescribed were 265 and average number of drugs per prescription was 2.36. It was seen that out of the 112 prescriptions, monotherapy was practiced in 19.64% (22) compared to polytherapy in 80.35% (90). Out of 265 prescribed drugs atypical antipsychotics were 112 (42.26%), typical antipsychotics 12 (4.52%), antiepileptics 57 (21.50%), antidepressants 29 (10.94%), antiparkinsonian 29 (10.94%), and others 26 (9.81%). Antipsychotics given orally were 122 of which olanzapine was 54 (44.26%), risperidone 40 (32.78%), chlorpromazine ten (8.19%), quetiapine eight (6.55%), aripiprazole five (4.09%), amisulpiride five (4.09%) were seen. Injectable antipsychotics were two, of which only haloperidol two (100%). Antipsychotics in combination prescription with same groups were 14 (12.5%), with antidepressants, antipileptics, antiparkinsonian were 88 (78.57%) and other agents were ten (8.92%), which included pantoprazole, multivitamins, and benfotiamine. Conclusion: This study shows that atypical antipsychotics are the most common drugs prescribed in patients with psychotic illness and olanzapine is the most common medication followed by risperidone. The most common disease was schizophrenia and injectable antipsychotic used was haloperidol.