Prescription of psychotropic drugs in adolescent psychiatry wards in Finland.

This point-prevalence study was designed to assess adolescent psychiatrists' practices of prescribing psychotropic drugs in hospital settings, and to compare the practices between the years 1991 and 1999. Data on patients' gender, age, diagnosis and psychotropic medication were obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to four hospital units in Finland. The sample represented 49% in 1991 and 29% in 1999 of all adolescent psychiatric inpatient beds in Finland. Of the patients included in the study, 30% (20/66) in 1991 and 68% (53/78) in 1999 were treated with drugs. The increase was biggest in the proportion of depressive patients and in the proportion of depressive patients receiving drugs. The results of this study suggest that the use of medication may have increased in recent years as new antidepressants and atypical neuroleptics have become available. Prescribing practices appeared to be appropriate, on the understanding that drug therapies are adjunct to other interventions.