Abstract

A PILOT STUDY ON DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN OF COMMON SKIN DISEASES IN A DEPARTMENT OF DERMATOLOGY

Raichel Johnson*, Anju Mary Scaria, Ameera A., Teny Prakash, Nithin Manohar R., Jomin George Joseph and Santhosh M. Mathews

ABSTRACT

Background: Dermatology diseases includes common skin rashes to severe skin infections, which occurs mainly due to infections, heat, allergens, system disorders and medications. Most common skin disorders are dermatitis. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the drug utilization pattern of drugs used in dermatology department. Objective: To evaluate the prescribing pattern of drugs in dermatology department. Materials and Methods: It is a hospital based retrospective (observational) study conducted in the department of dermatology in which the demographic details, information related to the drug treatment of the sample population are collected and analyzed. Results: Prescription analysis of drugs used in the dermatology department was conducted with 20 samples and results were obtained. In the study, the percentage of female patients (55%) were higher than that of male patients (45%). Majority of patients were from age group 50-75 (60%) followed by age group 20-35 (20%). Most of the patients visited the dermatology department with the complaints of psoriasis 35% followed by dermatitis (25%). The average number of drugs prescribed per prescription was 3.75 and total percentage of antibiotics prescribed from entire study group is 20%. The most commonly prescribed class of drug is antihistamines (30%) followed by antifungal agents (28%). Conclusion: From the study we concluded that most common disease encountered by study population was psoriasis and dermatitis which are wide spread in India. Antihistamines and corticosteroids dominated the prescribing pattern in this study. The average number of drugs per prescription was higher and the percentage of prescription with an antibiotic prescribed is optimal according to WHO guidelines.

Keywords: Dermatology, Prescribing Pattern, WHO Guidelines.