Abstract

STUDY OF PRESCRIBING TRENDS AND ELEMENTS OF PRESCRIPTION IN OUTPATIENT PSYCHIATRY DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL.

Dr. Meena Nandimath*, Arpit Kamat

Abstract

Introduction: Inappropriate use of drugs represent a potential hazard to patients. This necessitates a periodic review of pattern of drug utilization. All prescriptions must include the name, address, specialty and signature of the prescriber, name, sex, and age of the patient and the strength, quantity, dose, frequency, dosage form and instructions for use of the medication. Psychopharmacology is a rapidly growing field, psychiatrists are exposed to lots of newly introduced drugs The burden of illness resulting from psychiatric and behavioral disorders is enormous, therefore, the study was carried out to find out prescribing trends and elements of prescriptions of psychotropic drugs. Methodology: Institutional ethics committee approval. Prospective, Observational, noninterventional study in OPD of Psychiatry Departmentfor 2 months, 151 prescriptions were analyzed. Results: The principles of rational prescribing were followed except brand names(88%).Superscription and transcription was included in all the prescriptions, in 139(92.05%) subscription was written and the signature in 137(90.7%). Registration number was written in 77 prescriptions.The dose was written in 138(91.3%) of the total prescriptions. The frequency was written for all the drugs in 119(78.8%) and some drugs in 20(13.2%) and none of the drugs in 12(7.9%) of the total prescriptions.Of the total,66.7% of CNS drugs prescribed, clonazepam was the most commonly prescribed drug at(20.1%) followed by escitalopram (antidepressant) at 9.6% and amitriptyline (antidepressant) at 7.6%. Conclusion: Many prescribers lack the digitized information systems that reduce prescribing errors. To reduce these errors, some investigators have developed modified prescription forms that prompt the prescriber to provide all the desired elements of a good prescription.

Keywords: Drug utilization, Rational, Antidepressants, Psychopharmacology.