Journal
REVISTA DE SAUDE PUBLICA
Volume 40, Issue 1, Pages 107-114Publisher
REVISTA DE SAUDE PUBLICA
DOI: 10.1590/S0034-89102006000100017
Keywords
psychotropic drugs, administration & dosage; drug utilization, trends; pharmacoepidemiology; cross-sectional studies; psychopharmacology
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Objective To assess the prevalence and patterns of psychotropic use by population and to compare the results with a study carried out in 1994. Methods This is a population-based cross-sectional study carried out in 2003 with 3,542 participants aged 15 or older who lived in an urban area in Southern Brazil. Two-week recall data were collected in household interviews through the same questionnaire used in the 1994 study. The variables studied were age, gender race, education, family income, marital status, smoking, medical diagnosis of hypertension, and physician visit at last three months. Pearson Chi-square and linear tendency were used in the bivariate analysis. Four levels of multivariate analysis was performed Results The overall prevalence of psychotropic use was 9.9% (CI 95%; 8.9-10.9). There was no significant difference among standardized age groups when compared to the prevalence rates observed in 1994. Higher psychotropic use was associated with being female, older age, medical diagnosis of hypertension, and health service utilization. Of those interviewed, 74% of those drug users were using psychotropic drugs for over three months. Conclusions A decade later prevalence remained high, yet psychotropic drug use did not increase. The association between health service utilization and consumption shows the importance of the appropriate prescription of psychotropic drugs and regular follow-up of those prescribed them by physicians.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available