Objective: The objective of our work was to study the evolution of the prescription of psychotropic drugs in middle child psychiatry and discuss the current state of knowledge.
Materials-Methods: Our study was retrospective, comparative, of 232 children and adolescents followed in child psychiatry department of Sfax in the years 2005 and 2009.
The cases were randomly selected and divided into two groups matched for age, sex and diagnosis nosographic.
Results: The prescription of psychotropic drugs in the two groups was observed in respectively 36.2% and 33.62 % of cases. This requirement was to type:
• Antidepressants in 18.96% of cases in the first group against 15.68% of the second group.
• Neuroleptics classic in 6.9% in the first group against 13.72 % in the second group.
• Atypical antipsychotics were prescribed in 4.31% of cases in the first group and 13.72% in the second group.
• Psychostimulants, prescribed in 1.72% of cases in the first group and in 3.9% of cases in the second group.
• Mood stabilizers in 2.58% of cases in the first group and 7.84% of cases in the second group.
Conclusions: Our study shows significant changes in the prescription of psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents: use of new molecules characterized by their better tolerance such as atypical antipsychotics.