Therapeutic drug monitoring: Perspectives of psychiatrists in Turkey

Abstract

Objectives. Although the medical and economic implications of therapeutic drug monitoring have been intensely discussed over the past years, little is known about the experiences and attitudes of psychiatrists in their clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate psychiatrists’ daily practice with therapeutic drug monitoring in Turkey. Methods. A nation-wide cross-sectional survey among adult and child psychiatry specialist psychiatrists in Turkey was conducted. Results. We found that 98.4% (n = 380) of the study participants used TDM in clinical practice and 1.6% (n = 6) did not. However, TDM use is limited to mood stabilizers (lithium 96.3%, valproate 97.6%) to a great extent. Only a small number of psychiatrists perform TDM for other psychotropic drugs, e.g., clozapine 2.4%, tricyclic antidepressants 1.3%, benzodiazepines 1.1%, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors 0,8%. Conclusions. Most of the psychiatrists in Turkey have a positive attitude toward use of therapeutic drug monitoring although there is also a considerable difficulty to reach services for the therapeutic drug monitoring of psychotropics other than mood stabilizers.