Assessment of psychotropic medications prescribing pattern in Gebretsadik Shawo General Hospital, South West Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: due to the widespread prescription of antipsychotic medications, their usage is cumulative. Evidence on the trends of medication use in Ethiopia and other parts of the world is lacking. The scant information on prescription trends and medication usage suggests that drug use is generally not sensible in both industrialized and emerging nations. So, the aim of this study was to assess the psychotropic medications prescribing pattern in Gebretsadik Shawo General Hospital, South West Ethiopia. METHODS: from June 1(st) to July 31(st), 2019, a cross-sectional study on prescriptions for psychiatric drugs was conducted at Gebretsadik Shawo General Hospital. Using systematic random sampling, prescription records were obtained from the pharmacy dispensing book. Version 21 of the statistical program for social science was used to code and analyze the data. RESULTS: the study included 355 prescription records containing psychotropic drugs in total. The bulk of those taking the psychotropic medication were aged 20 to 49. The most often administered classes of drugs remained antipsychotic, followed by tricyclic antidepressants, antiepileptics, anxiolytics/sedatives, anticholinergic and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The most often ordered antipsychotic medication, which included 102 (23.18%) medications, was chlorpromazine. Tricyclic antidepressants, which included 56 medicines (12.73%) and 24 medications (5.45%), included amitriptyline and imipramine. CONCLUSION: the results of this investigation showed that psychiatrists preferred traditional psychotropic medications, such as Antipsychotic tricyclic, antidepressants (TCAs) and phenothiazines, in high amounts possibly because these medications were readily available in this hospital and their prices suited patients' needs. Health care workers' interdisciplinary relationships and coherence would improve for the benefit of patients and services of higher quality.