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Background: Bronchial asthma is a social and economic healthcare burden. Drug Utilization studies can play a key role in helping the healthcare system to understand, interpret and improve the prescribing administration & use of medications.Methods: A prospective, Cross-sectional, Observational study was conducted at inpatient and outpatient Department of Medicine and Paediatrics in tertiary health care centre. As per inclusion criteria, 127 patients with asthma were interviewed, and prescription data was recorded in a pre-designed case record form from 1 October 2018 to 31 December 2018.Results: A total of 127 prescriptions were studied. It was observed that majority of the study patients were in the age group of 40-50 years, with 83 (65.5%) males and 44 (34.6%) females. Most of the patients were of Mild intermittent asthma 65 (51.18 %) followed by patients with Mild persistent asthma 31 (24.40 %). 10 different anti-asthmatics drugs were prescribed along with adjunctive medicines. Most of the patients received multiple drug therapy 98 (77.16 %). Prevalence of two drug combination was the highest 74 (58.26 %) followed by monotherapy29 (22.83 %). Most common route of drug administration was inhalational route followed by oral route. β2 agonists and corticosteroids were the most commonly prescribed combination drugs followed by methylxanthines. 103 (81.10 %) prescription contains both generic and brand drugs compared to generic names only 16 (12.59 %) and brand names only 8 (6.29 %).Conclusions: This study concluded that the present prescribing practice in asthma therapy in tertiary care centre is not sufficiently rational. Hence, it is necessary to encourage physicians to follow asthma guidelines while managing asthmatic patients.

Background: Drug utilization study is of utmost importance in the elderly. The consumption of drug amongst elderly segment of society is maximum and many of them use at least three prescribed drugs, concurrently. One of the plausible explanation of usage of large number of medicines is prevalence of multi-morbidities as well as suffer from chronic and degenerative pathology amongst them along with the alteration of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of many drugs are altered with advanced age. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess current prescribing practices among physicians for geriatric patients in tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective, observational and cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with Department of Medicine in a tertiary healthcare hospital. As per inclusion criteria, patients visiting Medicine outpatient department (OPD) from 01 October 2018 to 31 December 2018 were enrolled in the study.Results: The average number of drugs per encounter was 4.1. 100% of the drugs were prescribed by their generic name and those prescribed from World Health Organization (WHO) list of essential medicines were 70.2%. Analysis of polypharmacy showed maximum 11 and minimum 1 drug was prescribed. Overall analysis of the drugs showed, the most common route of administration was orally. Drugs acting on cardiovascular system (CVS), gastrointestinal system (GI) system, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs and vitamins and mineral supplements constitute the major bulk of drug prescribed.Conclusions: In our study, though polypharmacy was found but it was necessary unavoidable, but was within the WHO standards of 1.6 to 4.8. Drugs acting on CVS and GI system were the most common drugs prescribed. Prescriptions with injections and steroids were less in the study population. All the drugs were prescribed by their generic name and most were present in the essential list of medicines.

Background: The illness due to psychiatric diseases and behavioral disorders is enormous, but it remains under represented by conventional public health statistics; which mainly targets mortality more than morbidity or dysfunction. The drug utilization study was conducted to find out problems and provide feedback to prescribers so as to create awareness about irrational use of drugs. This study was conducted in psychiatry outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective, observational and cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with department of psychiatry in a tertiary care hospital. Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria visiting psychiatric OPD from 01 October 2018 to 31 December 2018 period of 3 months were enrolled in the study. Assessment of the prescriptions was done as per the ICD-10 criteria and World Health Organization-indicators for rational use of drugs (WHO-INRUD).Results: Among total 390 prescriptions; 71.54% was males and 28.46% were females. All the drugs were oral formulations. The burden of diseases are depression 35.89%, anxiety 20.51%, schizophrenia 18.97% and bipolar disorder 11.28% and other psychiatric diseases were 13.33%. Olanzapine was the most common drug which was prescribed followed by alprazolam. Total 1,140 drugs were prescribed out of which 86.32% was psychotropic drug and 13.68% were other like vitamin B-complex, analgesics, anta-acids, antibiotics and NSAIDS. The Most common prescribed class was atypical antipsychotics 26.31% followed by benzodiazepines 20.26%, antipsychotics 19.74%, tricyclic antidepressants 8.16%, anticonvulsants 9.21%, antiepileptics 2.37% and lastly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics was most commonly prescribed drug followed by benzodiazepines. All the drugs were prescribed by their generic names which suggests awareness among prescribers regarding WHO policies for generic prescribing.