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----------------------------------------------------------------------- UK Doctors Often Underprescribe Tricyclic Antidepressants ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LONDON, Sep 15 (Reuters) - UK general practitioners, attempting to avoid adverse side effects, often prescribe subtherapeutic doses of tricyclic antidepressants to their patients, according to two British researchers. Dr. Nick M. Kosky of Dorset Community NHS Trust and Dr. Jill G.C. Rasmussen of a West Sussex general practice found in the Dorset Antidepressant Side-Effects Initiative (DASI), a survey of 100 family doctors, that many were prescribing tricyclic antidepressants in "...doses below those considered to be effective." Drs. Kosky and Rasmussen presented their findings on Sunday at the 10th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Vienna. "The vast majority of drugs being prescribed were older tricyclics which I found puzzling because they are harder to use," Dr. Kosky told Reuters Health ahead of the conference. He said that the tricyclics tended to be prescribed by the older doctors while younger physicians showed a preference for serotonin reuptake inhibitors. "GPs were quite good at knowing which drugs were dangerous to prescribe to suicidal patients ...[but]...there wasn't a recognition of all the side effects that commonly occur, such as sexual dysfunction," Dr. Kosky said. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. <http://www.reutershealth.com/news/docs/199709/19970915prd.html> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask]