Psychopharmacology in medical practice

Drugs intended to treat psychiatric disorders are referred to as psychotropic drugs. The main categories are antidepressants, mood stabilizing drugs, antipsychotic drugs, and antianxiety drugs. These drugs are widely used in medical practice and most clinicians are likely to have under their care several patients receiving treatment with them. Practitioners therefore need to have an understanding of both the uses and unwanted effects of psychotropic drugs, and particularly of (1) their interactions with drugs used to treat other medical conditions, (2) characteristic abstinence syndromes that can occur with sudden discontinuation of antidepressants (particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and venlafaxine) and anxiolytics.

Evaluation of anxiolytic activity of encapsulated flax seed oil alone and as an adjuvant in Swiss Albino mice

Background: Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural components with displeasing feeling of fear and concern. Among all the antianxiety drugs benzodiazepines are commonly employed drugs for the treatment but they do have limitations. Considering the high prevalence of anxiety disorders and lack of an ideal anxiolytic drug, search for better anxiolytic drugs continue. Medicinal plants are an inexhaustible source and continue to get explored in the search for new drugs.Methods: Antianxiety activity of Flax seed oil was evaluated in mice using Light-Dark Arena model and Elevated Plus Maze model. Encapsulated Flax seed oil (10ml/kg and 20ml/kg), Diazepam (1mg/kg), Normal saline (10ml/kg) and combination of Encapsulated Flax seed oil and Diazepam (10ml/kg + 1mg/kg) were given orally to the randomly divided 5 groups of 6 animals each. Number of entries and time spent in light arena of Light-Dark Arena model and in open arm of Elevated Plus Maze model were noted and compared among the 5 groups. Observations were analysed using ANOVA and Post hoc Tukey’s test.Results: Encapsulated Flax seed oil alone as well as an adjuvant to Diazepam showed significantly increased number of entries and time spent in light arena of Light-Dark Arena model (<0.05). It also showed significantly (<0.05) increased time spent but not number of entries in open arm of Elevated Plus Maze model.Conclusions: Encapsulated Flax seed oil showed anxiolytic property in Light-Dark arena model and Elevated plus maze model.

Study on drug usage pattern of anxiolytics in psychiatric department in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

Background: Psychopharmacology is a rapidly growing field, in which the number of patients is continuously increasing. Newly introduced drugs are projected as the better alternative to the traditional psychiatric medicines. The utilization and consequences on real life effectiveness and safety of antianxiety drugs in actual clinical practice need continuous monitoring. Aim of the present study was to analyze the pattern of various anxiolytic drugs prescribed to the patients in psychiatric department of a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: The present study was conducted by the department of pharmacology, in the department of psychiatry at SGRRIM and HS, Dehradun, for a period of 6 months from June 2016 to December 2016. Prescriptions of patients diagnosed with anxiety were analysed, using WHO drug use indicators.Results: A total of 603 prescriptions with anxiety disorder were collected. The mean age was 35.46±0.88 years. Majority of the patients were in 31-50 years age group 309 (51.24%). Male:Female ratio was 1:0.69. Disease pattern observed during the study were 177 (29.35%) generalized anxiety disorder, 147 (24.38%) depression, 99 (16.42%) obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), 81 (13.43%) psychotic illness, 63 (10.45%) bipolar disorders and 36 (5.97%) patients categorized as others category respectively. A total of 1974 psychotropic drugs were prescribed, 654 (33.13%) antianxiety drugs, 648 (32.83%) antidepressants, 240 (12.16%) antipsychotics, 198 (10.03%) antiepileptics and 234 (11.85%) miscellaneous drugs were prescribed. 552 (91.54%) patients received monotherapy and 51 (8.46%) were given polytherapy of anxiolytics. All (100%) anxiolytics were orally prescribed. A total of 30 fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of anxiolytics were prescribed. The numbers of anxiolytics per prescription were 1.085. The anxiolytics prescribed from National Essential Medicine List 2015 were 555 (84.86%). The percentage of anxiolytics with brand names were 618 (94.5%).Conclusions: Most of the prescriptions were rational but there is a need to encourage prescribing by generic names so that more cost-effective and rational treatment can be provided to the patients.