Abstract

ANALYSIS OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF COPD PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL SALEM

Dr. R. Kothai*, Dr. Rangabashayan, Dr. B. Arul, Punniya Mariam Sunny, Reshma R. Nair and Rinku Eliza Mathew

ABSTRACT

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common preventable and treatable disease, is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized and the developing countries. The problems get compounded with inappropriate and irrational use of medicines. An attempt was made to assess the current prescribing pattern with the WHO prescribing indicators to see whether the prescription pattern followed WHO guidelines in a tertiary care hospital in Salem. Methods: Retrospective analysis of 150 patients admitted in the General Medicine department over a period of six months from November 2015 to April 2016 in VMKVMCH, Salem, Tamil Nadu was selected for analyzing the drug use pattern using WHO prescribing indicators and drug-drug interactions in the prescriptions. The prescriptions were analyzed using descriptive statistics and results were expressed in percentage. Results: A total of 1015 drugs were prescribed and the average number of drugs per prescription was found to be 7.69±2.24. Most of the drugs were prescribed by brand name (63.34%). The percentage of drugs prescribed as per EDL-WHO 2015 was 22.36%. The most commonly prescribed COPD drug was Deriphylline [123(20.5%)]. When drug-drug interactions were checked via Medscape online Drug Interaction checker, 168 interactions were found. Conclusion: The prescribing patterns were not in accordance with WHO guidelines so it is necessary to make doctors aware about the use of drugs, importance of prescribing drugs with generic names, safety of prescribing drugs from EDL and patient’s point of view.

Keywords: Prescribing pattern, COPD, WHO guidelines.