Abstract

ANALYSIS OF DRUG UTILIZATION AND PRESCRIBING PATTERN IN DERMATOLOGY OPD IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, SAUDI ARABIA

Fahd Al Bulwi, Muhammad B AL Jamal, Rashid Al Zahrani, Ali Al Atawi, Azzah Ali Sanbi, Yasir Al Qahtani, Abdulrahman Al Harbi and Jawad Akram*

Abstract

Skin diseases are the major contributors of disease burden in society. It affects individuals of all ages, neonates to elderly. Owing to its chronic nature, it causes serious impact on quality of life of the patient and his family. The problem gets compounded with the inappropriate and irrational use of medicines. Periodic prescription audit in form of drug utilization study is a way to improve the quality of prescription and curb the menace of irrational prescribing which has become a global phenomenon. This study aims to determine the drug utilization pattern of skin diseases in dermatology OPD. It was a prospective, cross-sectional study conducted over a period of three months from January to March 2019 in newly diagnosed cases attending outpatient department of dermatology in a tertiary care hospital, KSA. The prescriptions were analysed with the help of descriptive statistics and results were expressed in percentage. Total 650 prescriptions were analysed during the study. Male patients were lesser as compared to female as male to female ratio was 0.88. Over 50% of patients were in adolescent age group i.e. 21-40 years. Acne (17.95%) was most common disease in the study population followed by eczema and Dermatophytosis. Among the drugs, antihistaminics (24.13%) were prescribed most frequently followed by antifungals and antibiotics. Topical agents constituted almost 60% of the total prescription and average number of drugs per prescription was 5.13, irrespective of the dosage forms prescribed.

Keywords: prescription, Dermatophytosis, skin dryness, eczema, antihistamines, antifungal.