Abstract

DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERNS OF ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Sandhya S.*, Dr. Beulah Milton, Dr. Sukanya E. and Parash Pamegam

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Drug utilization studies promote rational drug prescribing, understanding prevalence of drug usage in the population and investigate whether a specific intervention impacts drug use in the community by studying drug utilization trends. Materials and Methods: A Prospective observational study was carried out for a period of 6 months in psychiatry ward of a tertiary care hospital. The data were analyzed for psychiatric diagnosis, patterns of antipsychotic prescription, and the rationality of prescriptions according to the WHO prescribing indicators. Furthermore, defined daily dose (DDD) of the antipsychotics prescribed daily dose (PDD) and the PDD-to-DDD ratio were assessed. Results: In our study, majority of the patients were male (60%). Most of the patients in our study belonged to 31–40 years of age group. The most common diagnosis among these patients was schizophrenia (30%) followed by bipolar disorder (20%) and mania (16.6%). Among the antipsychotics, atypical antipsychotics (80%) were prescribed more often. Sedative-hypnotics (40%) were the most common concomitantly prescribed drugs. Polypharmacy, was observed in 20 (13.3%) prescriptions in the study. The average number of drugs per prescription was >2, Prescribing using generic names were low (65%). PDD-to-DDD ratios was lower than 1 for Sertraline, Clonazepam, Estazolam, Quetiapine, Zolpidem, Alprazolam, Mirtazapine and Clozapine, equal to 1 for Escitalopram, Risperidone, Haloperidol, Amitriptyline and was greater than 1 for Olanzapine. Conclusion: The present study provides valuable insight into the overall pattern of antipsychotic drugs prescribed in patients suffering from different psychiatric illnesses. The prescriptions were complete and there was rational prescribing in majority of cases.

Keywords: Drug utilization patterns, Antipsychotics, Defined daily dose, Prescribed daily dose.