An Evaluation of a Drug Administration System in a Psychiatric Hospital

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Liff, by Dundee, Scotland
² Biochemist, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Dundee Hospitals
³ Lecturer in Clinical Chemistry, University of Dundee

This survey attempted to assess the reliability of drug administration to psychiatric in-patients following the introduction of a new drug administration system. The urines of 236 patients were tested for various psychotropic drugs. In 6.4 per cent prescribed drugs were not detected, in 10.2 per cent non-prescribed drugs were detected, and in 4 patients both kinds of discrepancy were present. The relationships between these discrepancies and certain characteristics of the patients and drugs are discussed. Possible causes of these findings include nurse error, patient non-cooperation, laboratory error and abnormalities of metabolism.

The in-patients resident in a portion of a mental subnormality hospital were also investigated, and discrepancies were found both before and after the introduction of the new system.