Pharmacotherapy of the chronic patient: gender and diagnostic factors.

Clinical data from 1752 patients in five, ambulatory community mental health centers were used to test hypotheses about the diagnosis and psychopharmacotherapy of chronic patients. Analysis focused upon the interrelationships among gender, diagnosis, and the number of medications and dosages prescribed. Men and women differed in their age distributions and in the diagnoses received. Women were more often diagnosed with affective disorders than were men. There were also notable interaction effects with ethnicity. There was little evidence of differential drug prescribing practices, although women were somewhat more likely than men to be prescribed anti-psychotics and anti-depressants in the absence of an appropriate diagnosis.