Preferred antipsychotic by mental health professionals of Sindh and Balauchistan

OBJECTIVE: To determine the preferred antipsychotic drug of mental health professionals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among mental health care professionals of 25 public/private healthcare facilities of Sindh and Blochistan provinces form April 2007 to March 2008. After approval from ethical committee of Dow University of Health Sciences mental health professionals (trainees, consultants with experience only and consultant with postgraduate qualification) present on the day of visit to a facility were approached and asked to fill a semi-structured questionnaire to determine the preferred antipsychotic for patient as well as for themselves if they got ill and the factors they consider while choosing that antipsychotic. Descriptive analysis of the data was performed by SPSS v. 14. RESULTS: One-hundred five mental health professionals were divided in 3 groups i.e. trainees (29), experienced doctors (24) and consultants psychiatrists (52). They have almost equal experience of using typical (48%) and atypical (49%) antipsychotic, but when asked to chose antipsychotic for themselves, atypical (81%) were preferred over typical (14%) antipsychotic with Risperidone as the most common choice (55%) followed by quetiapine, olanzapine and clozapine. Regarding the factors influencing prescription, efficacy and safety were most considered factor while choosing antipsychotic for themselves as compare to efficacy and cost while experiencing prescription for patients. CONCLUSION: Clinical approach varies while prescribing anti-psychotic drug for the patients and for themselves between typical and atypical. Efficacy and safety were considered while choosing for themselves, whereas efficacy and cost while prescribing for patients.