BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) addressed drug utilization as the marketing, distribution, prescription and use of drugs in a society, considering its consequences, either medical, social and economic. There are several limitations on the use of drugs during pregnancy as there is a potential risk of malformations of foetuses. So, drugs have been classified into several categories (A, B, C, D, X and N) according to their safety profile during pregnancy. It is found that a pregnant woman received on an average 2 to 3 prescription drugs throughout her pregnancy period due to different medical problems. Overall dispensed drug use (excluding vitamins) decreased during pregnancy. However, there is still substantial exposure to drugs including drugs that are contraindicated during pregnancy. We wanted to determine, the use of different pregnancy categories of drugs in 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd trimesters for preventive and therapeutic purposes, commonly prescribed medicines in each three trimesters, adverse drug reactions, congenital malformations, low birth weights abortions, premature deliveries and prolongation of hospital stay of mother and baby. METHODS It is a retrospective study with cross sectional design among the pregnant women admitted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. After taking written informed consent from the pregnant women or their relatives, few relevant questions were asked to the mothers attending postnatal clinic and/or admitted in the gynaecology and obstetrics department of R. G. Kar Medical College. The antenatal card of the mother was examined, and the list of drugs were documented which they had received during antenatal period for different problems. Information like name, age, address, parity, contact number etc. were registered accordingly. Drugs prescribed to them were noted along with indications. RESULTS 107 prescriptions were studied and outcome were noted. From the study it is found that category A is the safest category and most commonly used category of drugs. The next commonly used drug is category N. CONCLUSIONS Few drugs in the unsafe category may be useful to tackle the emergency situations in pregnant women with minimum adverse outcome. So, for Indian subcontinent, a new categorisation of drugs is essential in antenatal use of drugs.

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BACKGROUNDPharmacology forms the backbone of rational therapeutics. The primary objective of teaching pharmacology is to enable undergraduate medical students to prescribe rationally. Hence, a survey was carried out at Medical Colleges of West Bengal to assess whether any change is needed in Pharmacology curriculum.

BACKGROUNDThe medical students undergoing MBBS course are busy all the time in their lessons and other academic activities. There is hardly any time of taking care of their health and they are reluctant to exercise. They also suffer from various mental stress and strain in their long study periods. So, after passing out, they may lose their firmity and may be a victim of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, etc. So, it is very urgent to do some interventions to maintain the physical and mental health of the medical students, as they are the future healthcare providers of our society.Our primary aim was to find out the different health problems among undergraduate medical students. The objectives were to find out the causes of absenteeism in the classes and take opinion from the students for improvement of their health status.