PATIENT GENDER AND PSYCHOTROPIC PRESCRIBING

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The proposed project is focused on how differences in the physician-patient interaction may be influencing differences in the prescribing of psychotropic medications to male and female patients in ambulatory care settings. To gain a better understanding of this problem, we will use an existing data set of 550 audio-tapes of physician-patient interactions from 11 different ambulatory care settings. Our overall goal is to test an interactional model of psychotropic drug prescribing that we believe may help better explain existing variability in the prescribing of psychotropic medications to male and female patients. First, we will transcribe all of the audio-tapes. Next, we will develop and test the reliability and validity of two coding instruments, the Patient Expression Inventory and the Treatment Discussion Inventory. We will then use these instruments to code the transcribed physician-patient interactions. Finally, we will use this information to test our proposed interactional model of psychotropic prescribing. Hierarchial logistic regression techniques will be used to test the model.