Table 2 Questions about physicians’ attitudes, beliefs and behaviour towards psychotropic drug prescribing. All questions except the last had five possible replies: the endpoints are shown. Figures are n (% of non-missing) for replies, and n (% of all respondents, n = 516) for missing
Question | Endpoints | Replies | Missing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
1 Which do you find easier: starting or stopping prescribing psychotropics? | Starting much easier (1) Stopping much easier (5) | 81 (16) | 237 (46) | 158 (31) | 31 (6) | 9 (2) | 0 (0) |
2 In your experience, are the problems you treat with psychotropics more social/economic, rather than medical? | Yes, very often (1) No, very rarely (5) | 23 (4) | 173 (34) | 110 (21) | 154 (30) | 54 (11) | 2 (0) |
3 How do you feel about changing a colleague’s psychotropic prescription? | Very difficult (1) Very easy (5) | 25 (5) | 173 (34) | 189 (37) | 108 (21) | 20 (4) | 1 (0) |
4 Do you believe your patients perceive expensive psychotropics as being more or less effective than cheap ones? | Much more effective (1) Much less effective (5) | 25 (5) | 152 (30) | 319 (63) | 9 (2) | 3 (1) | 8 (2) |
5 In your experience, how do health care staff behave towards patients who use psychotropics, compared to their behaviour towards other patients? | Much better (1) Much worse (5) | 0 (0) | 14 (3) | 362 (71) | 132 (26) | 5 (1) | 3 (1) |
6 When working in primary care, do you prescribe psychotropics that have recently appeared on the market? | Yes, very often (1) No, very rarely (5) | 2 (0) | 16 (3) | 39 (8) | 202 (39) | 257 (50) | 0 (0) |
7 In your opinion, are new psychotropics more effective than older ones? | Much more effective (1) Much less effective (5) | 6 (1) | 167 (33) | 308 (62) | 17 (3) | 1 (0) | 17 (3) |
8 If your patient has dose-dispensed drugs, do you ever repeat several prescriptions at the same time, without assessing each individual prescription? | Yes, very often (1) No, very rarely (5) | 14 (3) | 114 (22) | 66 (13) | 180 (35) | 138 (27) | 4 (1) |
9 In mild psychiatric disease, what kind of treatment do you consider most suitable: psychotherapy (PT) or psychotropic drugs (PD)? | PT much more suitable (1) PD much more suitable (5) | 192 (38) | 213 (42) | 78 (16) | 16 (3) | 4 (1) | 13 (3) |
1 | 2 | 3 | |||||
10 Keeping symptoms constant, how much do you suppose psychotropic prescribing varies between different GP practices? | It varies considerably (1) It varies negligibly (3)a | 224 (44) | 251 (50) | 29 (6) | 12 (2) |