Utilização de psicofármacos entre usuários da atenção primária do município de Maracanaú-Ceará

Abstract

The objectives of the present work is to describe the consumption of psychoactives amongst users who attended in the Primary Care of Health (PCS) and were directed to the Centre of Psychologic and Social Support (CPSS) in the city of Maracanaú; to evaluate the practice of prescribing, the acquisition and chronic use of psychoactives; to find out what represents the use of these medicines on a day-by-day basis and to evaluate factors that determine consumption of psychoactives, such as social, economic, demographic and biological variables. This was an epidemiologic, quantitative, observational, and cross sectional study carried out from September of 2006 to February of 2008 which evaluated individuals proceeding from the PCS and directed to the CPSS. The information was obtained through an interview comprising 57 questions. The sample was calculated as a function of the number of people registered and followed up by CPSS. In the total 200 people were interviewed, where 121 (60.5%) had affirmed to have consumed psychoactives in last the 15 days; of these, the majority were female, with an individual monthly income greater than two minimum salaries, low schooling (68.8% were illiterate) and with some type of secondary disease (54.5%). Some of them reported consumption of alcoholic beverages (20.0%), 54.0% were smokers and 72.0% did not take any physical activity. Concerning the questions about what the medicines represent to them, the majority (47.9%) said they felt something like “relief”. The average of the consumption of psychoactives was of 1,5 medicines per person. The majority of the people (78.3%) used them continuously and 73.3% had reported that they did not received any information about the risks of long-term use. Doctors were responsible for 93,9% of the indications. Of the users who reported that they had attempted to stop taking these medicines (57.8%), 78.3% did this suddenly. The groups of the most consumed medicines were: Anxyolitics (36.5%), Antidepressants (31.5%), Antipsychotics (17.7%) and Antiepileptics (11.0%). Of the anxyolitic drugs, the most consumed was diazepam it (27.0%). The main reasons for the consumption of psychoactives were: “nervousness” (20.4%), “sleeplessness” (17.8%) and “depression” (11.6%). Concerning the acquisition of psychoactives, 41.6% were obtained from the pharmacy of the CPSS, but 24.3% of these medicines were bought by patients. Some people (18.3%) got these drugs without medical prescription and 83.5% also used other medicines. These were, according to ATC classification, medicines of the Cardiovascular System (39.5%) and of the Gastric Tract (17.9%). Captopril, hidroclorotiazide, ranitidine, omeprazole, propranolol, prometazine and paracetamol were responsible for 38,5% of general medicines consumed. Our study provided relevant information about the use of psychoactive drugs in Maracanaú and on its users.