Assessment of Prescribing Trends and Rationality of Drug Prescribing

Medically inappropriate and economically inefficient use of medicines is observed throughout the world. This study was carried out to evaluate the prescription rationality and drug prescribing practice of physicians in East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Prescriptions of 690 patients were collected over a period of three months. Average number of drugs per prescription was found to be 3.01. Only 27.3% of drugs were prescribed in generic names. More than four drugs were prescribed in 208 prescriptions. The 17.3% of cardiovascular drugs were prescribed commonly. A total of 26 drug-drug interactions were detected in 18 of the prescriptions. The 41.6% drugs were not in accordance with WHO essential drug list. Approximately 32% of Prescriptions were not mentioned about strength, dose, frequency and duration of administration of the drugs. The 16.8% of prescriptions contain Fixed Dose Combination (FDC). Majority of fixed dose combinations were prescribed for cardiovascular patients and diabetic patients. The drugs prescribed in the generic names were remarkably lower. Majority of the prescribed drugs were not followed the WHO model essential list. Irrational prescribing can be avoided by sticking to the ideal prescription writing. This study revealed that a lot of scope for prescriber education to improve prescribing patterns.