Sammanfattning
Background: Despite concerns about rising treatment of psychiatric patients with psychotropic medications
and declining treatment with psychotherapy, actual treatment profiles of psychiatric patients
are largely unknown.
Aims: To describe patterns in the treatment of patients in a large psychiatric university hospital
department.
Methods: A descriptive mapping of treatment of in- and outpatients in a psychiatric department at
Aarhus University Hospital Risskov, Denmark. Information was collected by healthcare staff using a 25-
item survey form. The p-value was calculated with a chi-squared test and p < 0.05 was considered significant.
The study was preceded by a pilot study on 41 patients.
Results: Over a 1 month period, a total of 343 consecutive patients were assessed and hereof 200
were included in the age range 18–90 years (mean 53.76); 86 men and 114 women. One-hundred and
eighty-eight patients (94%) used psychotropic medication, 37 (19%) as monotherapy, and 148 (74%) in
combination with non-pharmacological therapy. Ninety-seven (49%) had psychotherapy and 104 (52%)
social support. Among inpatients, 21 (64%) had physical therapy, and 10 (30%) electroconvulsive therapy.
In total, 163 (82%) had non-pharmacological therapy. Fifty-two (26%) patients had monotherapy,
and 148 (74%) polytherapy. Mean number of treatment modalities used per patient was 2.07 for all
patients and 3.23 for inpatients.
Conclusions: In this department, polytherapy including non-pharmacological modalities is applied
widely across all settings and patient categories. However, psychotropic medication clearly dominates
as the most frequently applied treatment.