To Identify Patterns of Drug Usage among Patients Who Seek Care in Psychiatry Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Background: An examination of drug use is done in a particular setting, searching for drug use that isn't fair. At the population level, the use of psychotropic drugs for mental illness can be an effective way of identifying and tracking the level of treatment for these conditions. They also provide information on ethical drug use, informed by the currently available information on a medication's benefits and risks.

Objective: A major objective of the research was to gather data on patterns of drug use in the psychiatry outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India.

Methodology: The drug use research was performed in a tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, in a psychiatry outpatient clinic. This research was observational, cross_sectional, and open_ended in nature. All patients who attended the Psychiatry OPD and fulfilled the inclusion criteria over the course of a six_month cycle were included in the study.

Results: Over a period of six months, 600 patients from the psychiatry outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India were assessed. All patients were classified into seven age groups: up to 14 years old (A), 15 to 25 years old (B), 26 to 35 years old (C), 36 to 45 years old (D), 46 to 55 years old (E), 56 to 65 years old (F), and over 65 years old (G). Clonazepam was the most commonly prescribed medication (152 cases), followed by olanzapine (132 cases), lorazepam (105 cases), and escitalopram (92 cases).

Conclusion: Measuring drug use in treatment centres not only explains drug use rates and prescribing behaviour, but it also helps in the identification of causes of polypharmacy and the problems associated with it. Making a habit of setting standards and gauging the quality of clinical treatment using performance feedback should become standard clinical protocol.