PSYCHIATRIC DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS SOAR

CHICAGO (AP) - Doctors prescribed antidepressants at soaring rates in the
10 years ending in 1994, spurred by the new generation of drugs like
Prozac, researchers say.

And stimulant prescriptions took a big jump, with the dramatically
increased rate of diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorders in
children and adolescents, researchers reported.

``There has been an enormous increase in research on mental disorders that
has elaborated a much better understanding of how they come about and how
to treat them more effectively,'' said Dr. Harold A. Pincus, lead author of
a new study in Wednesday's issue of The Journal of the American Medical
Association.

``Partly as a byproduct, there's been a large increase in the number of new
medications available,'' he said by telephone Tuesday from Washington,
where he is deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric
Association.

Also, he said, the stigma of having a mental disorder has waned and people
are more willing to seek treatment.

The number of doctor visits in which patients received prescriptions for
mental problems rose from 32.7 million to 45.6 million over the decade, the
researchers said. That amounted to a 20 percent increase in the share of
total doctor visits resulting in prescription of such drugs, called
psychotropic drugs, they said.

Visits in which depression was diagnosed almost doubled over the 10 years,
from about 11 million to more than 20.4 million, the researchers said.

More growth occurred in the prescribing of antidepressants than in any
other category, from 30.4 percent to 45.2 percent of all psychotropic
drugs, the researchers said. At the same time, tranquilizer prescribing
fell from 51.7 percent to 33 percent of psychotropic drugs.

Undoubtedly, doctors have switched many patients from tranquilizers, such
as Valium, to new antidepressants such as Prozac because the new drugs work
better and more selectively without being habit-forming or causing
unpleasant side effects, Pincus said.

While stimulants account for only a small proportion of psychotropic drugs,
the rate at which they were prescribed more than tripled in the study, from
1.5 percent to 5.1 percent of all psychotropic drugs given during doctor
visits.

``That is almost exclusively aimed toward treatment of children and
adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,'' Pincus said.

The study did not explore whether drugs were given appropriately, and
Pincus declined to speculate. In recent years, health officials have
encouraged more recognition and drug treatment of depression, and campaigns
have been waged to increase public and physician awareness of its
prevalence.

Dr. Patrick B. Harr, board chairman of the American Academy of Family
Physicians, said Prozac was plagued by safety questions - which were
debunked by the Food and Drug Administration - in the early 1990s and many
patients refused to take it.

Harr, who did not participate in this study, said an examination conducted
today would show an even greater number of antidepressant prescriptions.