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33. Drug Prescription Pattern in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan

Ammara Ansar1, Sana Iftikhar1, Waleed Ahmed Mir1, Tahseen Kazmi1, Sarosh Daud1 and Mohammad Faisal Hashmi2

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the drug prescription patterns and frequency of polypharmacy in the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Lahore. Study Design: Cross sectional study  

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Medical and Surgical outpatient Departments of Shalamar Hospital Lahore from January to March 2017.

Materials and Methods: A desired sample of 400 prescriptions was selected using multistage sampling technique, with 200 prescriptions each from medical and surgical outpatient departments. Prescribing trends of drugs were reviewed and compared to the available WHO prescribing indicators.

Results: Average number of drugs per encounter in this study was 3.56 with 48% of prescriptions having more than 3 drugs. Antibiotics and analgesics were prescribed in 34.3% and 62.8% of the encounters respectively.  Percentage of prescriptions containing only oral medication, injectables and topical drugs was 79.3%, 2.8% and 17.8% respectively. None of the prescriptions had drugs with generic names. Statistically significant difference in the prescribing  trend of analgesics was noticed between medical and surgical prescriptions with p value of <0.001. Conclusion: Polypharmacy and prescribing brand names, instead of generic names of the drugs, continue to be the major problems in tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan. These inappropriate prescription trends  need to be addressed by observation of WHO guidelines for drug prescription to avoid unwanted consequences. Key Words: Prescribing pattern, Polypharmacy, Generic names, Tertiary Care Hospital.

Citation of article: Ansar A, Iftikhar S, Mir WA, Kazmi T, Daud S, Hashmi MF. Drug Prescription Pattern in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan. Med Forum 2017;28(5):138-141.