A Drug Utilization Study in Glaucoma Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Central India

Abstract

Glaucoma is considered as a chronic progressive and usually symptomatic disease that destroys retinal cells and is one of the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, including India according to World Health Organization (WHO) studies. Although dawn of newer topical agents have modernized the management of glaucoma, the cost of these drugs pose a major hindrance to successful treatment since it limits entrée and amenability. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:To analyze current prescribing trends in anti-glaucoma drugs, to perform a drug utilization study using WHO parameters, to identify drugs per prescription, category wise identification of drugs prescribed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a retrospective cross sectional, observational record based study carried out at NKPSIMS & RC, Nagpur, India. RESULTS: Out of total 405 records assessed, 275 were males (68%) and 130 were females (32%). Average number of drugs per prescription was 1.8 while the average cost of therapy per prescription came out to be 54.4 Rs.Amongst them most commonly used drug was timolol which was used in 80 patients followed by pilocarpine (68 patients) and brimonidine (35 patients). In males timolol was most commonly prescribed while in females timolol, pilocarpine and betaxolol shared a dominated use. Least prescribed drugs were topical atropine (2 patients), both overall and in males, while dexamethasone was used least in females (1 patient).CONCLUSION: Awareness regarding use of generics on a large scale should be done, keeping in mind only sole purpose-to increase the benefit of the patient, decrease cost of the treatment and decrease side effects without affecting efficacy.

Üçüncü basamak bir hastanenin obezite polikliniğinde Dünya Sağlık Örgütü temel reçete göstergeleri kullanılarak akılcı ilaç kullanımının değerlendirilmesi

“…The average number of drugs per encounter in our study was 1.7, which is within the range of WHO ideal values (1.6-1.8). Similarly, studies from Northwestern Ethiopia and India reported values within the acceptable range of 1.72 and 1.8, respectively (14,15). Several studies from different countries reported average number of drugs per encounter values higher than our results and WHO standards ranging from 2.2 to 5.85 (4,5,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20).…”

Study of prescription pattern of antiglaucoma drugs used in treatment of primary open angle glaucoma in ophthalmology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital

“…7,8 It has been endorsed that average number of drugs per prescription should be ≤2. 9 It is advisable to keep the number of drug prescriptions as low as possible since higher figures lead to an increased risk of drug interactions and an increase in hospital cost due to errors of prescribing. 10 Timolol, the most widely prescribed anti-glaucoma drug and it was most commonly prescribed (58%) in present study as well.…”

Antiglaucoma medication utilization and therapeutic outcome among Nigerian older persons with primary open angle glaucoma

“…Timolol, a beta-adrenergic antagonist was the most prescribed antiglaucoma monotherapy among the study populationsimilar to previous reports on antiglaucoma utilization patterns among POAG patients. 20,21 In this study the combination of latanoprost, timolol and acetazolamide treatment regimen appeared to be the most effective therapy among the participants. The majority of the participants with reduced IOP on medication alone were on this triple regimen.…”