Prevalence in the use of psychotropics and associated factors in primary health care

Abstract

Objective: Investigating the prevalence in the use of psychotropics and associated factors in primary health care withsocio-demographic and pharmacotherapeutic factors, medical history, and Common Mental Disorders. Methods: A cross-section study which includes 430 primary health care patients. The research instruments were Self-reporting Questionnaires and medical records. A chi-squared test was used in the univariate analysis, and a logistic regression was used in the multivariate analysis. Results: The prevalence in the use of psychotropics was 25.8%. There was an association among the use of psychiatric drugs and common mental disorders, use of non-psychiatric drugs, number of medications prescribed,number of pills a day, clinical pathologies, age, and schooling. In the multivariate analysis, the predictors for the use of psychiatric drugs were: common mental disorders, clinical pathologies, and schooling. Conclusion: The prevalence in the use of psychiatric drugs and the associated factors varied according to the univariate or the multivariate analyses.