A study of drug use during pregnancy in a teaching hospital in western Nepal

Abstract

Information on the use of drugs during pregnancy is scarce and rather anecdotal. Careful consideration of the benefit to the mother and the risk to the fetus is required when prescribing drugs during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to gain knowledge on this issue in western Nepal. 2156 prescriptions of pregnant women were collected at random from the antenatal care (ANC) in obstetrics out-patient department (OPD) at Manipal Teaching Hospital (MTH), Nepal and analyzed for this study. The mean maternal age and hemoglobin concentration were 25 years and 12.21 g/dl, respectively. Twenty-three percent women attended obstetric OPD due to maternal disorders other than routine ANC (77%). Problem oriented drug use was due to nausea/vomiting (4.7%), dyspepsia (3.1%), and per vaginal spotting/bleeding (3.4%), mainly. Most of the women got 2-3 drugs and commonly included nutritional supplementation and tetanus toxoid. The average number of drugs/prescription was 2.00, 15.37% and 64.8% drugs were prescribed by generic name and as fixed dose combinations, respectively. The most commonly prescribed drugs were nutritional supplements like iron, folate, calcium, vitamins (72.8%), followed by tetanus toxoid (12.4%), gastrointestinals (5%), antimicrobials (4.6%), etc. Though, the selection of drugs was rational in most of the cases, some anomalies were observed and discussed with the clinicians. Our data reflect the general extent and prescribing pattern for those Nepalese pregnant women attending hospital in western Nepal.

A study of morbidity and drug utilization pattern in indoor patients of high risk pregnancy at tertiary care hospital

“…19 In moderate anemia, iron salts were given in most of patients as to overcome the need of increased iron requirement during pregnancy. Ferrous fumarate and Ferrous ascorbate was prescribed in 144 (57.6%) and 45 (18%) patients which is similar to other studies in United States (72%) 19 , Switzerland (65%) 20 , West Nepal (72.8%) 21 and Egypt (86%) 22 But less than one study. 23 Injectable iron like iron sucrose was prescribed to moderate and severe anemia when oral iron was not tolerated and gives faster response.…”

Prescription Pattern of Drugs in Pregnancy: A Review

“…Oral iron intake is the treatment of choice, and almost all women can be treated effectively with oral preparations 21 . All pregnant women attending antenatal OPD were prescribed iron and folic acid as a positive result compared to other studies where the percentages of women prescribed iron & folic acid were -West Africa (33.33%) 22 , Germany (iron-54%) 23 , Nepal (72.8%) 24 and Pakistan study (79.4%) 25 . Thus Findings of this study showed that all eligible pregnant women were provided with prophylactic iron and folic acid therapy.…”

Prescription Pattern in Gynecology- A retrospective study in a South Indian Teaching Hospital

“…Rohra DK et al [11] found majority of drugs prescribed during the 3 rd trimester of pregnancy (55.4%) and average number of drugs prescribed was 1.66+ 0.14. In the study of Das B et al [12] most of the female received multiple drugs which included mostly nutritional supplements like iron, vitamins. Polypharmacy was also reported by Kumari R et al [13] in their study which was conducted in Lucknow, north India and they found lowest average of number of drugs per prescription was 2.6 + 1.6 at tertiary level.…”