These drugs can have serious side effects and some of them, especially the benzodiazepines have an addictive potential. Therefore, their prescription and use should be monitored by a healthcare professional. Also, the treatment of mental disorders entails more than just prescription of medicines; it also requires the doctor to develop a strong bond with the patient, and to counsel the patients regarding alternative treatment options. In this context, several of our findings were distressing. Almost 51% of the patients with psychopharmacological medications did not know their diagnosis. Several factors could be responsible for this. Most of the psychopharmacological medicines in our study were antidepressants and it is possible that doctors were hesitant to tell patients that they were suffering from depression. Further, patients may have refused the diagnosis due to the social stigma associated with psychiatric diseases, or they may have been unable to understand the diagnosis due to Pancuronium dibromide cognitive disability associated with psychiatric illnesses. At the same time it can also be argued that the doctors were unable to effectively explain the diagnosis to their patients because they themselves were unclear about it. With almost 71% of the patients no alternative treatment options were discussed. This issue must be addressed because addition of non-pharmacological treatment options can be helpful in augmenting the treatment of common mental disorders like anxiety and Butenafine hydrochloride depression, and in milder cases these may be the only forms of treatment required. This finding can also be interpreted as a sign of over dependence on medications on the part of family physicians when it comes to managing such disorders, given that often there are several pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options. Adverse effects of the drugs had not been explained to almost 86% of the patients being prescribed psychopharmacological medications. SSRIs have fewer side effects, but TCAs and benzodiazepines have significant ill-effects which should be discussed with the patients before initiating therapy. In general, most patients attending primary care services want to know the adverse effects of the treatment being prescribed to them. Although, most patients knew about the duration of treatment, a third did not. This can prove hazardous as prolonged treatment with benzodiazepines can lead to dependence, while stopping antidepressants before time is likely to lead to relapse. With almost 82% of the patients no referral plan was discussed. This complements the findings of a previous study which showed that only 3% of the patients in a psychiatry clinic had been referred by primary care physicians. The low rate of referral makes it all the more important for the physicians at 
first level of care to be well versed in the management of mental illness. In a developing country like Pakistan mental illnesses make up a significant proportion of the total disease burden and trained psychiatrists are few. Consequently, correct identification and effective management of common psychiatric disorders by family physicians becomes essential. The most common psychopharmacological medicines prescribed were antidepressants with relatively fewer prescriptions of benzodiazepines. This pattern differs from other studies which show benzodiazepines rather than antidepressants as being the most commonly prescribed psychopharmacological medicine. This is an encouraging finding as benzodiazepines have a high potential for addiction and should be used.