For chronic disorders in the dental and oral surgical fields, drug therapy is mainly used. In particular, such disorders accompanied by pain may be associated with psychogenic factors, and therefore, often psychotropic drugs are given to reduce anxiety and achieve sedation. To clarify the present state of the use of psychotropic drugs, we carried out a survey of 17 psychotropic agents, using 54, 364 prescriptions written at our hospital between April 1996 and March 1997.
Of all the prescriptions, 3.4% contained the investigated psychotropic agents. Ethyl loflazepate and alprazolam, as antianxiety drugs, were very frequently prescribed (total for the two drugs, 49.4%) . Many patients (64.7%) were middle-aged or aged (40-69 years) . Each psychotropic drug was predominantly used in females; the number for females was threefold higher, or more, than for males, for each drug. According to the departments, the psychotropic agents were frequently prescribed in the oral surgical department, where treatment of oral mucosal diseases and tooth extraction are mainly performed, and in the anesthesiology department, where pain control is primarily performed (total for the two departments, 97.4%) . According to disorders, atypical facial pain (34.2%) was most frequently observed, followed, in order, by temporomandibular arthrosis and glossalgia (total for the three disorders, slightly less than 80%) . Antidepressants were sometimes prescribed for atypical facial pain. All these disorders are accompanied by pain, suggesting a close association between pain and oral psychosomatic disorders. At present, oral psychosomatic disorders are not indications for psychotropic drugs, and expansion of their indications to the dental field is necessary.
