An-Najah Staff

Pattern of atypical and typical antipsychotic medications among one hundred and twenty four patients receiving these medications was investigated and analyzed. Males constitute approximately 61% of the sample. More than half of the patients in the sample were less than 50 years old. Most the patients prescribed antipsychotic medications were having schizophrenia (61%). Analysis of the prescribed antipsychotics for the patients showed that approximately 99% of the patients were receiving conventional typical antipsychotic medications either as single (70.2%) or combination (17.7%) or in depot form (10.4%). Less than 2% of the patients were receiving atypical antipsychotic medications. Among those prescribed conventional typical antipsychotic drugs, only (56%) were co-prescribed anticholinergic drugs. The underutilization of atypical antipsychotics and the underutilization of anticholinergics to be co-prescribed with conventional antipsychotics require further evaluation and investigation at the national Palestinian level.