How are decisions made about prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs for psychiatric outpatients?

Background to the study

• Randomised controls trials (RCTs) provide valuable evidence about the effectiveness of medication
• There are great differences between the circumstances of an RCT and those of the real-life clinical setting
• Little is known about how psychiatrists and their patients negotiate decisions about medication

• To understand better how prescribing decisions are made in psychiatric outpatient consultations

• Highly detailed conversation analysis of 100 tape recorded outpatient consultations
• Participant-observation on 3 wards (inner London, outer London, South East England)
• Observation & interviews with patients and staff

• Three-year study, starting Spring 2003
• Findings will be disseminated widely and will be fed into training materials and courses for psychiatrists