ANALYSIS OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF DRUGS AMONG PATIENTS ATTENDING DERMATOLOGY OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Rohini Gambre, Akash Khobragade*, Kamagonda Jalikar, Sadiq Patel and Sanket Gaidhane

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Drug utilization study enables us to describe the pattern of prescribed drugs as well as to detect the problems in drug prescribing and use. This study was undertaken to reveal the same among dermatological outpatient practice with an objective to provide remedial messages to prescribers and to provide the baseline data to drug and health policy makers and planners. Methods: A total of 600 prescriptions from dermatological outpatients were randomly selected and analyzed using the guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO) to find the various parameters of prescribing indicators and the pattern of prescribed drugs. Results: The average number of drugs per encounter was 3.86(±0.32). Drugs prescribed by their generic name were 89.33% and those prescribed from National essential medicines list were 92.27% and those prescribed from WHO list of Essential Medicines were 90.3%. Analysis of polypharmacy showed maximum 7 and minimum 1 drug was prescribed. Overall analysis of the drugs showed, the most common route of the prescribed drug was oral followed by topical. Antifungals, Antihistaminics, and steroids constitute the major bulk of drug prescribed to the participants. Conclusion: In our study, though polypharmacy was found but it was necessary as per the condition of the patients and mainly prescribed drugs were for common disorders found in the study population. Prescription audit can be an eye opener and therefore, it should be done periodically to rationalize the prescription, reduce error and suggest cost effective management.

Keywords: Dermatological outpatients, drug utilization, polypharmacy, prescribing pattern.