Objective: In this study, the knowledge and attitudes of the resident about psychiatric drugs were aimed to investigate.
Methods: The survey study included 100 residents who were receiving specialization training in Uludag University Faculty of Medicine. Participants completed a questionnaire containing 17 true–false items about psychiatry and psychopharmacology.
Results: According to the results of the questionnaire survey, 58% of participating residents who stated that psychiatric diseases can be treated with medications. 40% of the participants thought that antidepressant drugs had dependency potential, 42% of them indicated that antidepressants cause attention deficit, and concentration loss in patients. 32% of the physicians thought that antidepressant drugs makes an artificial happiness and effective in people without depression and 27% of them conceive that taking an antidepressant drug at the time of acute distress, effects immediately and reduce anxiety and depression. More than fifty percent of the survey participants (58%) stated that antiepileptic drugs just used for reducing comorbid epileptic attacks in psychiatry clinic and %27 of the physicians thought that mood stabilizers (lithium) is used for balancing reduced lithium in human body.
Conclusion: In our study, it has seen that the mistaken belief about psychopharmacology which comes up frequently in the media is widespread among physicians. Based on these findings, it has seen that firstly psychiatrists and all physicians has important role in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, which is often, require long-term medication. Consequently outcomes of our study seem to emphasize activities performed so as to provide recognition of pharmacotherapy in psychiatry by the physicians of other disciplines and patients.