Prevalence of psychotropic drug use and conformity of therapeutic dose among mental health users

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objectives: to identify the prevalence of psychotropic drug use according to their Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification among Psychosocial Care Center users and assess their prescription compliance based on the recommended therapeutic dose. Methods: this is an analytical study, based on documents, from the study of 389 records between September 2017 and May 2018. Associations between the presence of underdose or overdose and participants’ characteristics were assessed using the chi-square test, adopting a significant value of p <0.05. Results: the most used drugs were antipsychotics (74.7%), 16.0% of users with at least one medication with a dose below the therapeutic level and another 3.6% above the recommended therapeutic dose. Conclusions: greater nonconformities in the prescribed dose were related to antihistamines, antipsychotics and antidepressants, with underdosage associated with females and overdose with the report of hearing voices.