The compliance to prescribed drug treatment and referral in a psychiatric emergency service: a follow-up study

objectives: to evaluate the compliance to the prescribed drug treatment and referral of patients discharged from a psychiatric emergency service (pes). method: from a total of 330 patients enrolled in the study, 175 (53%) agreed to a telephone inquiry 60 days after the pes visit regarding the status of the prescribed medication use and the outpatient referral. results 227 patients (68.8%) received prescription for a psychotropic medication and all patients were referred to an outpatient psychiatry service. of the 175 patients who agreed to participate, 153 (87.4%) were successfully contacted by phone. out of these, 97 patients (63.4%) were using the prescribed medication and 83 (54.2%) had scheduled a community appointment after 60 days. patients who received a prescription had a greater chance of being on psychotropic medications at follow-up (or 2.88; ic 95% 1.33-6.22; p = 0.007). however, the prescription was not associated with being in regular outpatient treatment (or 0.76; ic 95% 0.036-1.61; p = 0.475). conclusions: psychotropic medications were routinely prescribed for pes patients, but this practice did not increase compliance to outpatient treatment referral after two months.