Xanax
The Most Widely Used Psychiatric Drugs
October 4, 2007 by admin · Leave a Comment
The Most Widely Used Psychiatric Drugs
According to FDA data reported by Carlene Baum and her associates in the February 1988 Medical Care, there was a dramatic decline in the use of minor tranquilizers and other antianxiety drugs, from a peak of 103 million prescriptions in 1975 to 67 million in 1981 in the United States. There are no complete totals available for recent years, but the APA’s task force report, Benzodiazepine Dependence, Toxicity and Abuse (1990), estimates that annual prescriptions for benzodiazepines have leveled off since the mid-1980s at about 61 million.
The minor tranquilizers, now led by Xanax, remain by far the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medications. In some countries, such as France, the use of these agents continues to escalate.
Most minor tranquilizer prescriptions—65 percent—were for women in 1984. However, women predominate in all psychiatric drug categories. Thirty-five percent of all patients were sixty years of age or older.
