Perceptions About Psychotropic Medications in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent worldwide, affecting around 450 million people. Many concerns about using psychotropic medications have emerged recently. The present study aimed to assess the perceptions and knowledge of psychotropic medications among individuals living in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Method: A cross-sectional design was employed using an online questionnaire assessing demographics and perceptions towards psychiatric disorder and psychotropic medications using Likert scale questions. The Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were conducted to compare independent variables with psychiatric medication questions. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically signicant. Results: A total of 155 respondents were included. Of them, 41.3% of participants totally agreed that psychiatric medication is necessary for treatment, with only 18.1% believing that psychotropic medications can cause severe side effects and addiction. About one-third of them agreed that psychiatric medication needs enough time to be effective (37.4%) and many psychiatric disorders are chronic (39.4%). About 20% disagreed with the abrupt discontinuation of psychotropic medications. The signicant factors affecting the perception of psychiatric medication's necessity for psychiatry treatment were the working style (p=0.042), a region in Saudi (p=0.010), and taking medications (p=0.044). Age (p=0.021) and marital status (p=0.026) signicantly impacted the disagreement of a sudden stop of psychiatric medication perception. Conclusion: The ndings revealed that perceptions were signicantly affected by work style, region in Saudi Arabia, taking medications, age, and marital status. The ndings helped understand participants' general perceptions and knowledge. Continued research on a larger scale is necessary