Drug prescription pattern for bronchial asthma in a tertiary-care hospital in Eastern India

Abstract

Background: A wide range of medications are now available for the treatment of asthma, and selection of optimal treatment is essential. Aims and Objective: To evaluate the drug-prescribing trend of antiasthmatic drug in a tertiary-care hospital. Materials and Methods: The prescription data from 130 patients with asthmapatients were studied using a prescription auditing pro forma. Data were recorded from the patients attending the outpatient department of Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital from February to July 2014. Verbal consent was taken from the patients before filling the pro forma. Results: During the study, 130 patients were monitored but only 100 prescriptions were included for data analysis as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Demographic analysis of data revealed that there were 66% men and 34% women in the study. The study showed that maximum patients with asthma belonged to 30-40 years age group. The results of this study showed that most of the patients received combination therapy as compared with individual therapy. Majority of the patients received combination therapy of beta 2 agonists and glucocorticoids via inhalational routes; 34% of the prescribed drugs are from the essential drug lists. Average drugs per prescription were 5.16, and 54% of the patients received more than four drugs. About 60% drugs were given by inhalation route, followed by oral route (38%). Conclusion: There is need to encourage the physician to use the treatment guidelines while managing patients with asthma. In conclusion, National Asthma Education program would benefit as an initial step to improve asthma knowledge and increase awareness in the medical community on current treatment practice.

Assessment of Asthma Control and Quality of Life among Asthmatic Patients Attending Armed Forces Referral and Teaching Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…This shows that most of the patients had received antibiotics without confirming infection, and this could possibly result in over or misuse of antibiotics that culminates into development of resistance. A similar notion that antibiotics might be used (irrationally) had also been reported by Prasad et al [42]. In connection with this, Darmon et al [43] conducted a cross-sectional study using database in primary care of France and Italy and found 37.1% and 42.2% of antibiotic prescription, respectively.…”

Drug Prescription Pattern in Pediatric Patients of Bronchial Asthma Attending outpatient Department in a Private Hospital

“…In the present study, prescription of multiple antiasthmatic drugs was considerably high (66%) which suggests adherence to standard treatment guidelines 1 . These findings comply with other published studies such as Garje, et al 17 , Karki, et al 27 and Prasad, et al 28 . Among the children treated with multiple drug therapy, two drug combinations (46%) were prescribed the most.…”

“…This study also found that the patients were mainly prescribed inhalational dosage forms of anti-asthmatic drugs. The studies by Trivedi, et al 26 and Prasad, et al 28 were also in the same line. The acceptance of inhalation therapy among patients suggests awareness among patients as well as counselling by the treating physician.…”

“…Among the children treated with multiple drug therapy, two drug combinations (46%) were prescribed the most. In contrast, some studies preferred ≥3 drug combinations of anti-asthmatic drugs 17,27,28 .…”

Prescribing Trends in Asthma in Pediatrics: A Longitudinal, Observational Study

“…Another study done by Thomas et al [14] reported that combination therapy with ICS-LABA therapy was prescribed for 7% of patients which was quite low as compared to this study. Monotherapy was given in 24.19% of patients which is slightly higher than the study done in Gorakhpur by Pandey et al [15] (19%) but is lower than in a study done by Prasad et al [16], in which all patients were prescribed with multiple drug therapy.…”