Aims: The present study was carried out to describe the patterns of prescription and drug use in Ophthalmology outpatients at GG hospital, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. Methods: Total of 600 patients were included during 3 months duration and average number of drugs per encounter, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage of encounters with antibiotics prescribed, percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed, percentage of drugs prescribed from the WHO Essential Drug List 2015, number of fixed dose combinations prescribed and percentage of antimicrobial agents prescribed were analyzed. Results: Prescription analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.20%. Eye drops were the most commonly prescribed (66.8%) dosage form, followed by ointment (18.4%), capsules (8.66%) and tablets (6%). Dosage forms were recorded in 99.2% drugs, information about the frequency of drug administration was present in 96% of the drugs and duration of therapy was recorded in 84.7% of the drugs prescribed. The drug classes that were used most frequently were Antibiotics (45%), Ocular lubricants (24.7%), NSAIDS (17.4%) and Anti-allergy medications (8.1%). Conclusion: Common prescription errors were minimum. However polypharmacy was common.
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