Decisions About Drug Therapy

Abstract

The drug prescription behavior of a group of psychiatric residents in the adult psychiatry outpatient clinic of a university hospital was studied. It was found that symptom profiles for patients treated with antipsychotic, antianxiety, and antidepressant drugs were systematically different. An objective classification procedure was developed to simulate the drug selection behavior of the psychiatric residents. Applications of the methods in clinical research were discussed. The feasibility of using the same methods in developing a model to simulate the decision behavior of a select group of experts is apparent.