Publication:

A prospective study of prescribing pattern of drugs among in-patients of gynaecology department in a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India

Background Analysis of prescribing pattern can be helpful for the assessing the beneficial and adverse impacts of the prescribed drugs. Even though drugs used for gynaecological disorders are one of the commonly used, they are least studied in terms of prescribing patterns. Hence the present study was planned to analyse the prescribing pattern of drugs among in-patients of gynaecology department in our institute.

Methods A prospective observational study was carried out in a total of 162 in-patients of department of gynaecology in our institute for a period of one year. Along with baseline demographic data, the total number and categories of drugs prescribed, percentage of individual drugs in each category, their dosage forms, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and drugs prescribed from essential drug list were analysed.

Results Overall a total of 1647 drugs were prescribed. Antimicrobial agents (35.76%), vitamin and mineral preparations (28.29%) and anti-ulcer drugs (10.32%) were the top three categories of drugs prescribed in our study. Metronidazole (27.34%) was the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial drug whereas ferrous sulphate (31.97%) was the highest prescribed vitamin and mineral preparation. Among the anti-ulcer drugs, ranitidine (89.42%) was the most frequently prescribed drug. Most commonly used analgesic was diclofenac (59.05%), antiemetic was ondansetron (77.92%) and intravenous fluid was ringer lactate (37.03%). Tablet was the most common dosage form (38.01%) followed closely by injection (33.27%). The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 26.17% and from essential drug list was 84.86%.

Conclusions Antimicrobial agents and vitamins and mineral preparations were the most commonly prescribed drugs. Usage of injections should be reduced as they were relatively more commonly prescribed in our study. Prescription of drugs by generic names must be increased substantially to reduce the economic burden on patients.