Undergraduate medical school training in psychoactive drugs and rational prescribing in the United Kingdom.

The present study examines the extent and form of teaching on psychoactive drugs and the rational prescribing of them given to undergraduate medical students in the United Kingdom. All the 21 schools which replied taught on psychoactive drugs. The average was 15.4 hours of formal teaching (lectures, seminars, tutorials). The teaching on psychoactive drugs compares favourably with the average of 4.2 hours teaching given on alcohol related problems and 3.5 hours on drug dependence. It emerged that there was a great deal of variation in the amount of teaching on psychoactive drugs and many schools felt their teaching on rational prescribing was inadequate. There is a need to promote better co-ordination between medical school departments and to identify the key concepts which all medical schools teach. These steps would help to ensure improved teaching on psychoactive drugs and rational prescribing.