AN EVALUATION OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF DRUGS IN ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME USING WHO PRESCRIBING INDICATORS

Cristina Joy,*, Moushmi Arul Moorthy, Dona Saju, Jithin Antony, Sengottuvelu Singaravel and Sheik Haja Sherief

ABSTRACT

The main objective of drug utilization study is to determine and promote the rational drug use, by evaluating the drug use pattern, using the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribing indicators. The analysis of prescribing pattern reflects the clinical judgement of the clinicians. A prospective observational study was conducted among 270 in-patients who were diagnosed with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) in a tertiary care hospital for a period of 6 months, to analyze the drug use pattern in accordance with WHO prescribing indicators. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 12.77. Number of drugs prescribed by generic name was only 3.97%. The frequency of the use of injectable preparation was found to be 87.07%. Antibiotic constituted only 18.51% of the total number of encounters .The percentage of drugs prescribed from WHO essential drug list was about 35.62%. The findings of the study reveal that the drug use was not optimal in accordance with the standard values of WHO prescribing pattern. The study suggests the need to increase generic prescribing to reduce the cost of drug as well as to create awareness among the prescribers to prescribe based on essential drug list, to eliminate the unnecessary drugs which may lead to poly pharmacy that may result in other drug related problems.

Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome, WHO prescribing indicators, Poly pharmacy, Rational drug use.