The authors conducted quality review of outpatient psychopharmacological
practice in 180 cases with the screening criteria of the APA Task Force on
Psychopharmacological Criteria Development and a subset of 12 criteria
involving higher-risk practices. Excessive duration of drug treatment was
the most common questionable practice, and no relationship was found
between frequency of questionable practices and patients' sex, age, social
class, or Global Assessment Scale score. An educational exercise based on
the audit resulted in a nonsignificant decrease in the higher-risk
practices.
Abstract Teaser