S16 european journal of pharmaceutical sciences 32S ( 2 0 0 7 ) S6–S21 and dispensing of the 3rd list psychotropic drugs as well as to evaluate benefit of the new regulations. Methods: Information about amounts of distributed psy- chotropic drugs, the most often prescribed psychotropic drugs, the age and sex of patients who are using these med- ications, prescription correctness, and patient’s diagnosis in this study was obtained in the four community pharmacies and one general physicians doctorate. Results: The 10 024 prescriptions of the psychotropic drugs from different physicians were analysed during 2-year period in 4 pharmacies. Information about patient’s diagnoses was coded and personal data were not used. The analysis of the prescribed psychotropic drug in the context with patient’s gender, age, diagnosis, living environment, etc. was used to evaluate outcome of the provided pharmaceutical care. In average during 1 month psychotropic drugs were distributed to the 2.1% of country inhabitants, 3.4% to the city. The DDD per 1000 persons in average in Latvia was 29. 70% of described medicines were benzodiazepines. Women used psy- chotropic medications two times more than men. Family doctors prescribed 65.6% of the all psychotropic drugs whereas psychiatrists only – 14.3%. Conclusion: In general, female sex, elder age and somatic disorders are associated with increased psychotropic drug use. The most often prescribed drugs are benzodiazepines, namely, diazepam, clonazepam and bromazepam. Introducing of the new regulations in Latvia decreased prescribing of the psy- chotropic drugs. Indeed, 20% less prescriptions were received in pharmacies. However, only 2% less psychotropic drugs were prescribed in family doctor practice. Acknowledgement ESF grant, Latvian Scientific Council grant 05.1419. doi:10.1016/j.ejps.2007.05.032 O-22 Use of antiglaucoma medicines in Estonia, Latvia and Nordic Countries L. Rootslane a , A. Themas a , A. Irs a,b a Estonian State Agency of Medicines, Estonia b Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Tartu University, Estonia E-mail address: Ly.Rootslane@sam.ee (L. Rootslane). Objective: Glaucoma has been one of the leading cost items in drug reimbursement in Estonia throughout the last years. The antiglaucoma preparations are in the fifth position after medicines for treatment of hypertension, diabetes, cancer and asthma. The aim of the study was to analyze the consumption of medicines for treatment of glaucoma in Estonia during last 5 years and to compare the data with the Nordic Countries and Latvia. Method: The ATC classification (2007) and defined daily doses methodology were used. The Estonian data was collected from wholesalers of medicinal products and the comparison data from annual published statistics on medicines of Finland, Norway and Latvia. Results: The use of antiglaucoma medicines increased dur- ing last years both in volume and monetary value in Estonia. The total use of ATC group S01E – antiglaucoma prepara- tions and miotics – was 7.13 DDD/1000/day in 2002. During 5 years the consumption increased almost 2 times to 12.03 DDD/1000/day in 2005. The use of beta blocking agents was sta- ble (3.5 and 1.36 DDD/1000/day). The increase was due to the wider use of prostaglandins and combinations of beta block- ers with dorzolamide or latanoprost. The use of latanoprost increased 6 times (0.42 and 2.63 DDD/1000/day) during 5 years. The turnover of antiglaucoma medicines increased more than the consumption in volumes – 2.6 times (0.98 million EURO in 2002 and 2.6 million EURO in 2006). In 2006 more than 75% of turnover of antiglaucoma medicines was spent on prostaglandins and combinations of beta blockers with dor- zolamide or latanoprost. In Nordic Countries the use of antiglaucoma medicines slightly increased during last 5 years – from 13.46 to 14.28 DDD/1000/day in Finland and from 15.95 to 17.23 DDD/1000/day in Norway. The use of prostaglandins increased more than the use of other preparations on both countries. The consumption is lower in Latvia if compared to the other coun- tries – 4.51 DDD/1000/day and beta blockers are the most used medicines.To conclude, the use of antiglaucoma preparations increased in Estonia during last 5 years and has now achieved the same level as in the Nordic Countries. The increase was induced by increased use of prostaglandins and combinations of beta blockers with dorzolamide or latanoprost. According to the treatment guidelines beta blockers are still the first choice medicines for the treatment of glaucoma, so medi- cal and pharmacoeconomical points of these changes in drug consumption need to be analyzed in more detail to judge the appropriateness of the prescribing. doi:10.1016/j.ejps.2007.05.033 O-23 How and why people use the internet to access information about antidepressant medicines M. Pohjanoksa-M ¨ antyl ¨ a a , J.K. Saari a , U. N¨ arhi b , A. Karjalainen b , M.S. Airaksinen a , J.S. Bell a,c a Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Finland b National Agency for Medicines, Helsinki, Finland c Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Australia E-mail address: marika.pohjanoksa@helsinki.fi (M. Pohjanoksa- M¨ antyl ¨ a). Objective: To explore how and why people with depression use the internet to access information about antidepressant medicines. Methods: Six focus groups (29 participants) were conducted with people with depression in metropolitan Helsinki. Partic- ipants had previously used the internet to access information about antidepressant medicines. The focus group discus- sions were digitally audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were thematically content analyzed by two researchers. Results: Physicians were generally considered the primary source of information about medicines. However, partici-