A psychotropic drug use study among depression patients attending private psychiatric practitioners of Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Abstract

Background: Drug use studies are beneficial in clinical practice for rational prescribing of drugs and helpful for minimizing the medication errors. Aims and Objectives:The present study investigates the prescribing pattern of various antidepressants among private practitioners of Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Materials and Methods:A retrospective observational study was carried out in a private psychiatric unit at Dehradun. A total of 196 prescriptions were analyzed using World Health Organization drug use indicators and National Essential Medicine List (NEML) 2013.Results: Among 196 prescriptions, 54.08% were for females and 45.92% were for males. Depression was more commonly seen in patients in aged 31-50 years. Depression was more common among housewives (28.06%) and in married (52.04%) people. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (39.17%) were the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants followed by serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (33.33%). Fluoxetine and escitalopram were the most commonly prescribed SSRIs. Alprazolam (59.33%) was most commonly prescribed benzodiazepine class followed by lorazepam (16.0%) for comorbid anxiety symptoms. Among patients, 18.48% antipsychotics were prescribed to patients; olanzapine and risperidone (atypical antipsychotics) were the most commonly prescribed. Trihexyphenidyl was the most common anticholinergic prescribed. The average number of drugs per prescription in our study was 3.03 with 55.39% drugs prescribed from the NEML 2013.Conclusion: Fluoxetine and escitalopram were the most commonly used SSRIs. SSRIs are preferred over other antidepressants because of their relative lesser side effects. Polypharmacy was observed with benzodiazepines as frequent coprescription.Abstract Dutta et al.: A psychotropic drug utilization study

Drug utilization study and prescribing patterns in psychiatry patients at a tertiary care hospital

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Antipsychotic medication prescribing trends in a tertiary care hospital

“…Trihexyphenidyl was the most common anticholinergic prescribed. 10 Grohmann et al in their study analyse data on drug use in 1995 and 2001 assessed at two reference days per year and per hospital within the drug safety program AMSP were compared for 10 hospitals found that atypical neuroleptics (NL) were used in 59.9% of patients on NLs in 2001 (16.7% in 1995), most frequently olanzapine, risperidone, clozapine, and quetiapine, in this order. 39% of patients still received typical NLs in antipsychotic indication (77.1% in 1995), and 30.8% received typical hypnosedative NLs (38.1% in 1995).…”

Prescription Patterns of Sedative Drugs, Efficacy and Daytime Sedation in Various Psychiatric Patients in a Teaching Hospital

“…Which is contradictory to earlier report such that alprazolam was the most commonly prescribed benzodiazepine followed by lorazepam. 16 Among Antidepressants, the most commonly prescribed drugs were Desvenlafaxine (12) & Mirtazapine (12) followed by Amitriptyline (9) & Nortriptyline (9). Among Antipsychotics, the most commonly prescribed drugs include Olanzapine (25) and Risperidone (15).…”