精神科 外來患者들의 静穩劑의 習慣性에 對한 概念

PSYCHIATRIC OUTPATIENTS CONCEPTS ON HABITUATION POTENTIALITY OF TRANQUILIZER

The author studied the opinion on habituation potential of tranquilizer and their coping way with it of 180 psychiatric outpatients, who visited the psychiatric outpatient department of Kyungpcok National University Hospital and Dongsan Presbyterian Hospital during the period from Jan. 1979 to Mar. 1979. This study was controlled with that of medical patients. The results were as. follow： 1) In both of the psychiatric patients and medical patients, about two thirds of the patients believed that tranquilizer had habituation potential and there was no difference in this ratio by age, sex, and diagnostic distributions. More patients of higher education level were found to believe in habituation potential of tranquilizer than those of lower educational level. 2) Among the psychiatric patients, there were significantly less believers of habituation potential in patients who had been given their first prescription by psychiatrists rather than other physicians, and the longer the drug-taking period, the more the believers of the habituation potential. 3) Among the psychiatric patients who believed in the habituation potential of tranquilizer, about 83% considered habituation as similar to the reappearance of the symptoms of their primary illness when stopped the drug-taking and 14% considered habituation as similar to narcotic addiction. However, believers of habituation asbeing similar to narcotic addiction were more prevalent among medical patients than psychiatric patients. 4) About 60% of psychiatric patients who believed in the habituation potential of tranquilizer came to have such belief by their own judgement and the others through the information of other patients or mass media, and the latter were more prevalent among medical patients than psychiatric patients. 5) About one-third of the psychiatric patients, who believed in the habituation potential replied that 6 months was the presumed period for habituation. About 7% supposed that less than cne week as the presumed period for habituation formation. 6) Among the psychiatric who believed in the habituation potential of tranquilizer, less than half of them took their drugs as prescribed by the psychiatrists and the others did not follow the prescription in any way, and this tendency was more prominent among neurotics than psychotics.