Pharmacology is the science of drugs, their pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and their use in the treatment of disease and as a dental health care professional we need to be fully aware of the art of rational drug prescription. A questionnaire based study was distributed amongst dental internes of Government Dental College, Srinagar Kashmir to study the need of knowledge of pharmacology, the disease forms in dental practice and the type of medication prescribed and was conducted on 48 interns and junior residents of the hospital. From the survey it was concluded that 38 percent of them regularly updated themselves on the newer drugs available in the market and knew about the dosage of each medicine while as 42% often read about the updates. Of them 38% preferred brand names and 54% were aware of the mode of action of the drugs that were prescribed by them and of them informed the patient about the possible side effects after prescribing the certain medications. It was concluded that the majority of the practitioner had good knowledge of the pharmacology of medicine they prescribed.

Combination of aspirin, clopidogrel and enoxaparin remains the standard treatment for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) but is known to increase the incidence of upper gastrointestinal bleed (UGIB). We hereby report an unusual case of gastrointestinal bleed (GIB) as it resulted inspite of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) prophylaxis within the second day of treatment in a post-menopausal woman (PMW) with high first dose of aspirin clopidogrel dual combination in a patient of ACS.

Background: BPH is a major cause of bothersome lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and affects quality of life (QoL) which deteriorates if not taken care with the passage of time. The aim and objective of the study was to compare the efficacy and safety of combination of silodosin and dutasteride with the combination of alfuzosin and dutasteride in patients of BPH.Methods: A randomized, open label, intention to treat study was carried out on newly diagnosed patients of BPH. Patients were randomly divided into two groups and followed up to 12 weeks. Group 1 of patients received a combination of silodosin 8 mg and dutasteride 0.5 mg (SD) (n=20) while the patients of group 2 received combination of alfuzosin 10 mg and dutasteride 0.5 mg (AD) (n=20). Primary endpoint was measured by changes in the mean baseline International prostate symptom score (I-PSS) and uroflowmetry and secondary outcome with changes observed on ultrasonography.Results: IPSS and IPSS-QOL significantly improved in both the treatment groups (p <0.001) along with mean maximum flow rate (Qmax) and mean average flow rate (Qavg). Prostate volume and residual urine volume showed a significant improvement in both the treatment groups at 12 weeks. However, the intergroup differences in IPSS, uroflowmetry and USG parameters were not significant. Both treatments were well tolerated.Conclusions: The current study established that both the drug combinations i.e. silodosin and dutasteride (SD) and alfuzosin and dutasteride (AD) largely have a comparable effect on both the dynamic and static components of BPH. Further, both drug combinations appear to have a comparable safety profile.