RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: In Bipolar disorder the mood of the patients fluctuates between depression and mania. The main objective of the study was to find out the commonest mood stabilizers used for the treatment of Bipolar affective disorders in Western Nepal in hospitalized patients in an actual clinical set up. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study which was conducted between October 2009 and September 2010 at Psychiatric ward at Manipal teaching hospital, Pokhara, Nepal, a tertiary care hospital situated in Western Nepal. The diagnosis of the disease was based on ICD-10 (Tenth revision) Classification of mental and Behavioural disorders, Diagnostic Criteria for Research. We calculated odds ratio and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). p< 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: 62.1% of the patients were less than 40 yrs, 56.3% were male, 72.4% were unemployed and 75.9% of the patients were having monthly income <10,000/month. As far as ethnicity is concerned 37.9% of the cases were Brahmin and by occupation 29.9% of the patients were students followed by housewife 25.3%, labour 17.2%, retired 13.8% respectively. Drugs and Psychotherapy [OR 1.4, 95% (CI 0.575, 3.4017)] was prescribed in age <40 years as compared to age>40 yrs. Male patients [OR 7.22, 95% (CI 0.862, 60.499)] and [OR 2.353, 95% (CI 0.857, 6.455)] received drugs by trade names and drugs not from the national drug list of Nepal as compared to females. Monthly income <10,000/month and [OR 2.8, 95% (CI 0.742, 10.56)] tendency of receiving drugs by trade names. Among the mood elevators Sodium valproate was the commonest drug to be prescribed in 51/87(58.6%) patients followed by Lithium in 30/87 (34.5%) cases and Carbamazepine in 6/87 (6.9%) cases. Sodium valproate was prescribed at 1,000 mg/day, Lithium was prescribed at 900 mg/day in and Carbamazepine was prescribed at 800 mg/day. CONCLUSION: Among all the mood elevators Sodium valproate is the commonest drug prescribed for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder, recommended that there is a trend of using newer drugs like sodium valproate rather than the conventional mood stabilizers like Lithium for bipolar affective disorder in Western Development region of Nepal.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Currently a large number of atypical antipsychotics available in the market are endorsed as better option for treating schizophrenia than the typical antipsychotics. Information regarding the utilization pattern of antipsychotic drugs is lacking in Nepalese population particularly in Western Nepal. By means of this study one is expected to acquire an idea concerning clinician's preference to the antipsychotic drugs in actual clinical setup. The main objective of the study was to find the commonest antipsychotics prescribed in a tertiary care center among hospitalized patients in Western Nepal. METHODS: This cross sectional study was carried out between 1st January 2009 and 31th December 2010 at Manipal Teaching Hospital, Nepal. The diagnosis of schizophrenia was based on ICD-10 (Tenth revision).The main outcome variables of the study was commonest antipsychotic drug prescribed. Z test, Chi square test and logistic regression were used for analytical purpose. P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. This is the first study done on the utilization pattern of antipsychotics drugs among hospitalized patients in Nepal. RESULTS: Out of 210 cases of schizophrenia, most of the patients were less than 40 yrs. 78.6%, male 61.9%, unemployed 86.7% and having their monthly income less than NPR 10000 /month 80.5%. As far as religion, 78.1% patients were the Hindus and ethnically schizophrenia was common among the Dalit 26.2%. The study revealed that 46.2% of patients were students followed by 25.2% of housewives. Olanzapine was the commonest antipsychotic drug to be prescribed 34.3%. It was observed that the psychiatrists had a tendency of using antipsychotic drugs by trade names [OR 3.3 (1.407, 8.031)] in male patients as compared to female patients. CONCLUSION: According to the utilization pattern of antipsychotics, it is concluded that atypical antipsychotics were used relatively more commonly than that of typical antipsychotics. Among the atypical antipsychotic drugs, there is a trend of using Olanzapine during Schizophrenia as compared to other atypical antipsychotic drugs in Western Nepal.
