Prescribing practices in psychiatric hospitals in Eastern Europe.

BACKGROUND: There has been no evidence about the prescribing practices in psychiatric care in Eastern Europe. AIMS: To examine the patterns of psychotropic prescribing in five countries of Eastern Europe. METHOD: We conducted a one-day census of psychiatric treatments used in eight psychiatric hospitals in Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. We examined clinical records and medication charts of 1304 patients. RESULTS: The use of polypharmacy was frequent across all diagnostic groups. Only 6.8% of patients were on monotherapy. The mean number of prescribed drugs was 2.8 (SD 0.97) with 26.5% receiving two drugs, 42.1% receiving three drugs and 22.1% being prescribed four or more psychotropic drugs. Typical antipsychotics were prescribed to 63% and atypical antipsychotics to 40% of patients with psychosis. Older generations of antidepressants were prescribed to 29% of patients with depression. Anxiolitic drugs were prescribed to 20.4% and benzodiazepines to 68.5% of patients. One third of patients received an anticholinergic drug on a regular basis. CONCLUSIONS: Older generation antipsychotics and antidepressants were used more frequently than in the countries of Western Europe. Psychotropic polypharmacy is a common practice. There is a need for adopting more evidence-based practice in psychiatric care in these countries.

[Antibiotic prophylaxis in cesarean section]. / Antibioprofilaxia în operatia cezariana.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics in preventing pelvic infection after cesarean section. A randomized, prospective study was carried out between January 1, 1994 and May 15, 1995. There had been involved 657 women without significant obstetrical differences. 305 of them were excluded from analysis, for have received antibiotherapy after operation. 182 women received prophylactic antibiotics (group B) consisting of certain combinations, given in one dose. 170 women constituted the witnesses' group (A). The rate of postoperative infection in the group who had received antibiotic prophylaxis (group B) was lower (15.93%--29 women) than in the group A (32.35%--55 women who had postoperative infection). Therefore, antibiotic prophylaxis reduced the frequency of infections after cesarean section for 2.03 times. IN CONCLUSION: Prophylactic antibiotics are effective in preventing pelvic infections after cesarean section.