Open AccessDRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN OF PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS IN PSYCHIATRIC OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL
Author(s) -
K Mamatha,
Letty Sabu,
Mariya Yacob,
Hemendra Singh
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
asian journal of pharmaceutical and clinical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2455-3891
pISSN - 0974-2441
DOI - 10.22159/ajpcr.2017.v10i1.15112
Subject(s) - polypharmacy , medicine , risperidone , escitalopram , medical prescription , psychiatry , psychotropic drug , drug , observational study , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , antidepressant , pharmacology , anxiety
Objective: The growing concern over the burden of psychiatric illnesses in health statistics elicit the importance of rational prescribing of psychotropicdrugs. Due to the minimal number of studies conducted in this area, the present study was carried out to assess the morbidity pattern and prescribingtrend of drugs used in psychiatric outpatients.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted for a period of 6-month in a psychiatric outpatient department. The medical recordsof 202 patients were reviewed for analyzing the prescription pattern using the World Health Organization drug indicators, wherein patients werecategorized according to the International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria.Results: In the present study, 129 (63.9%) of the 202 patients were males. The majority of the patients (36.63%) were in the age group of 25-35 years.Substance-related disorders (28.71%) were the most common psychiatric disorders followed by schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders(22.77%). Anxiolytics and hypnotics (31.99%) were the most commonly prescribed psychotropic drug class followed by antipsychotics (20.2%) andantidepressants (18.18%) with clonazepam (47.89%), risperidone (42.5%), and escitalopram (57.4%) being the most common drugs, respectively.Polypharmacy was found in 93.56% of the prescriptions with an average of 3.396 drugs/prescription. Generic drug usage (39.94%) was found to below when compared to the brand drug usage (60.05%).Conclusion: Benzodiazepines were the most commonly used psychotropic drugs. Polypharmacy, although practiced as a treatment strategy tomanage psychiatric illnesses, predisposes patients to adverse events and adherence issues.Keywords: Drug utilization pattern, Psychotropic drugs, Polypharmacy, Psychiatric outpatients.