Pilot study:

utilization in a population based survey about consumption of psychotropics. The pilot study is useful and many times indispensable to conduct researchs in epidemiology. In this paper, the authors make some comments about the principal results of the pilot study made in the research "Epidemiology of the Comsumption of Psychotropics in Pelotas, RS". It was found a prevalence of consumption of psychotropics of 12 percent in a population that lives in a suburb of Pelotas, RS, among other results. The author discusses its utility in the final study, in terms of the instruments, cut-off points, verifications of the logistic of the study, among other aspects