Abstract

Objective: Drug utilization patterns may vary between children and adults even for similar indications. Psychiatry is one of the areas where differences of both diagnosis and drug utilization often vary between age groups, imposed by respective separate subspecialties and their prescribing patterns. The study aimed to compare utilization of drugs prescribed by psychiatrists and child/adolescent psychiatrists (CPs).
Method: This study evaluated all electronic prescriptions that were generated by psychiatrists and CPs and registered to the national Prescription Information System in 2016. The drugs in these prescriptions were examined and compared in terms of physician groups.
Results: Among 1,150,621 prescriptions generated by psychiatrists and CPs during the study year, 94.2% (n=1,083,631) belonged to psychiatrists and the remaining 5.8% (n=66,990) to CPs. Psychiatrists were detected to prescribe significantly fewer nervous system drugs than CPs did (89.5% vs. 97.8%, p

Key words: Drug prescribing, Psychiatry, Child health, Serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, Antidepressive agents, Methylphenidate