ABSTRACT
The elderly people are more prone to develop psychiatric disorders due to a number of factors like changes in the brain, other illnesses etc. They represent the most vulnerable group as they are most sensitive to the effects of drugs and are at increased risk of developing adverse drug reactions. This warrants the need to make the prescribers cautious about rational prescribing of antipsychotics to the Elderly. The study included elderly inpatients and outpatients visiting psychiatry ward with psychiatric disorders. Descriptive weighed analysis was performed to determine the prescribing practices of atypical antipsychotics. Among the 70 patients who were involved in the study, 36 patients were diagnosed with neurotic disorders and 30 patients were diagnosed with psychotic disorders and 4 were diagnosed with degenerative disorders (dementia). In our study neurotic disorders (51%) were the major diagnosis. 6 different atypical antipsychotic drugs were prescribed to the patients suffering from different psychiatric disorders. Among them olanzapine (43%) was the most commonly prescribed drug, followed by quetiapine (30%), risperidone (21%), clozapine (3.2%), lurasidone (1%), and aripiprazole (1%). This study has concluded that atypical antipsychotics are preferred over typical antipsychotics and Olanzapine is the most commonly prescribed drug for the elderly patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. On comparison of the prescribed daily doses with the maximum daily dose we have observed that the prescribed daily doses for the elderly patients were well within the maximum daily dose of the drugs and in our study no adverse drug reactions were reported in the study subjects that were involved.