PRESCRIPTION PATTERNS OF SEDATIVE DRUGS, EFFICACY AND DAYTIME SEDATION IN VARIOUS PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objectives: To study the prescription patterns of sedative drugs, efficacy and daytime sedation in various psychiatric patients in a tertiary care hospital

- Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. Materials and methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out for 6 months, patients of all ages and both sexes were included in the study. Results: The diagnostic pattern mainly divided by neurosis (68%) and psychosis (32%). The prescription pattern was divided into monotherapy (45 %) and polytherapy (55 %). Neurosis (68%) was more prevalent than psychosis in respect to patients with sedative drugs. Patients Clonazepam 65 % was the most commonly prescribed drug among all the classes of drugs. In the sleep efficacy study, 79 %, 18 %, 3 %, patients had good, fair and poor sleep respectively. Using Epworth Sleepiness Scale scoring, 43%, 3%, 16%, 7% has normal daytime sedation, mild, moderate & severe daytime sedation respectively. Unpaired t-test was performed between mono and polytherapy of total sleep efficacy showed that (0.6) there was no significance. Mann Whitney U test was performed for Epworth Sleepiness Score between mono and polytherapy patients (0.9) showed that there was no significance in daytime sedation between the patients on both mono and poly therapies. Conclusion: In future, a larger survey may be conducted to covering the aspects such as providing counseling and reduce the less sleep efficiency in patients, and finding out pharmacokinetics of the drugs to prescribe the correct doses of drugs to the patients.