Fahad  D.  Alosaimi,  Fay  S.  Alruwais,  Fadah  A.  Alanazi,  Ghaida  A.  Alabidi,  Nadia  A.  Aljomah,  Nuha  S. Alsalameh

ABSTRACT
 
Objectives: To explore the possible causes behind adults seeking psychotropic medications without a prescription; identify the most commonly used psychotropic medications without a prescription; and determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders among adults who used psychotropic medications without a prescription in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2014 to August 2015. A convenience sample was taken by distributing a self-administered questionnaire among participants who had obtained psychotropic medications without a prescription from retail pharmacies during the 4 weeks prior to study intake in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition to the study questionnaire, the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire was used to screen for major depressive disorder, and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale was used to screen for general anxiety disorders.
 
Results: Of the 302 subjects, 42.4% attributed their use of psychotropic medications without a prescription to the non-seriousness of their symptoms and 28.5% to the high cost of psychiatric services. Escitalopram was the most commonly used medication (31.8%), and 3 atypical antipsychotics were used by more than one-fifth of the study participants. The prevalence for major depressive disorder was 46.0% and 41.7% for generalized anxiety disorder.
 
Conclusions: Most of the participants were able to easily obtain psychotropic medications without a prescription. We recommend implementing strong policies to prevent retail pharmacies from dispensing psychotropic medications without a prescription.

Original article link (http://www.neurosciencesjournal.org/_cgi-bin/DetailArticle.asp?ArticleId=12124)

Neurosciences