An exploratory study of nutraceutical prescription pattern among psychiatric patients in an out-patient setting

Background: Nutraceuticals are increasingly being used in psychiatric practice. However the literature continues to be limited for most of these agents. Prescription of nutraceuticals to psychiatric patients has not been systematically studied in Indian setting. The current study is aimed at assessment of prescription pattern of nutraceuticals in psychiatry out-patient setting in a tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at the out-patient department of a tertiary care hospital. The sample frame was constituted by all the prescriptions from the out-patient psychiatry department. The information was collected for the socio-demographic variables using a semi-structured proforma. The patients were diagnosed based on the ICD-10 and the diagnoses were grouped as per the 10 categories of ICD-10. The prescriptions were screened for the nutraceuticals. The data were analyzed using SPSS ver 14.0. Results: A total of 174 consecutive prescriptions from the consenting patients were included in the study. Highest proportion of the study subjects (36.8%) belonged to the 'mood disorder' category (F 30-39), followed by 'schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders' category (F 20-29) (24.1%). Majority of the prescriptions at first visit (75.9%) did not include a nutraceutical. 63.2% of the last prescriptions did not include any nutraceutical. The different diagnostic categories did not differ significantly with regards to prescription of nutraceutical at the first visit. However there was a significant difference between the different diagnostic categories with regards to nutraceutical in the last prescription. Conclusions: Of all the diagnostic categories, prescriptions of individuals diagnosed with 'mood (affective) disorders' and 'neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders' demonstrated significant increase in prescription of nutraceutical at the last prescription as compared to the first prescription.