BACKGROUND The use of psychotropic drugs has increased over recent years in France. GPs are the first prescribers, especially for older patients. AIM To analyse discrepancies between GPs' opinions and practice when prescribing psychotropic drugs to older patients. SETTING Postal surveys sent to GPs all over mainland France. DESIGN OF STUDY Cross-sectional postal study. METHOD A question...

Many children in the USA are prescribed psychotropic drugs that have not been fully investigated in paediatric clinical trials. The common practice of prescribing psychotropic drugs off-label poses unknown and potentially serious short- and long-term consequences for these children. This paper briefly reviews the factors associated with the lack of paediatric clinical trials. We advocate a shif...

BACKGROUND Elderly persons make greater use of psychotropic drugs, but there are few international studies on social differences in the use of these medications. The aim of this study is to examine social differences in the use of psychotropic drugs among persons aged 65-74 years in the International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS). METHODS The sample consisted of 1,995 participants in the IM...

BACKGROUND Most studies examining psychotropic medication use on cognition in older persons with dementia include measures of global cognitive function. The present study examined the relationship between different types of psychotropic medication and specific cognitive functions in older people with dementia. METHODS Two hundred and six institutionalized older adults with dementia (180 women...

INTRODUCTION The incidence of mortality is higher among psychiatric patients than among the general population and the cause of which may be the psychiatric disorder itself or other related factors like life-style and medications. Sudden death has been associated with certain psychotropic drugs and the underlying cause(s) have been suggested to be some adverse cardiac complications. We reviewed...

The prescribing of psychotropic drugs by general practitioners was assessed by analysing the drug treatment of all patients referred from general practice to a psychiatric outpatient clinic over four years. Of the 287 patients, 220 were taking one or more of 56 different psychotropic drugs at referral, diazepam being the most common. Benzodiazepines and barbiturates had been taken for significa...