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

Abstract

Background: In view of the high prevalence rates and the fact that medication is the primary line of treatment in POAG, an understanding of prescribing patterns can provide an insight into rational use of antiglaucoma drugs.Methods: This prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in the glaucoma clinic of a tertiary care teaching hospital over a period of 12 months. Data from prescriptions of patients with POAG was recorded to study the prescribing pattern of antiglaucoma medications, completeness of the prescription and analysis of the prescriber’s influence.Results: Total of 103 prescriptions were included in which all the 141 anti-glaucoma drugs were prescribed as eye drops. Average number of drugs prescribed in present study was 1.36. β blockers, particularly Timolol (58%) was the most frequently prescribed drug. Timolol with dorzolamide (15%) was the only prescribed fixed dose combination. Prostaglandin analogues (5%) were least commonly prescribed. 53% drugs were prescribed by generic names and 43% were prescribed from hospital formulary. Instructions regarding the route and frequency of drug administration with duration of treatment were present in all prescriptions; however, instructions regarding method of instillation of eye drops were missing. Authors observed prescriber’s influence in present study.Conclusions: Overall prescribing pattern in our set up is satisfactory. There is a need to sensitize the prescribers regarding the importance of writing method of instillation in prescription as this could improve efficacy reduce side effects, prevent drug wastage and reduce cost. To encourage the physicians for rational prescribing such type of studies should be done more often for periodic auditing of prescriptions.

Drug Utilization and Prescribing Pattern of Glaucoma in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Dehradun

“…Among all carbonic anhydrase inhibitors most commonly prescribed drug was dorzolamide (22.31%) followed by acetazolamide (18.46%) and brinzolamide (1.54%). This study is different from the study by Advani M. et al in which dorzolamide, a topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitor was the second most common drug prescribed in present study (23%) of which 15% was with timolol as FDC and the remaining (8%) in combination with brimonidine [13] .…”

Untitled

“…That each of the patient seen in this study was prescribed average of 2.64±0.96 anti-glaucoma drugs per encounter is probably in keeping with the guidelines, which posit that maximum medication therapy for glaucoma should be that which encourages compliance and tolerance on the part of the patient while keeping in mind the need to achieve optimal therapy [12]. Meanwhile, most of the patients received the beta blocker, in the form of timolol eye drop, which is similar to the finding of a study conducted by Advani and Jadhao [13]. Timolol is an effective ocular hypotensive agent, and it is the least expensive of all anti-glaucoma drugs.…”

“…Timolol is an effective ocular hypotensive agent, and it is the least expensive of all anti-glaucoma drugs. The relative affordability of timolol eye drop has been noted as one of the reasons it is favoured over other anti-glaucoma drugs, as this encourages adherence to therapy [13]. Second to timolol, latanoprost eye drop was widely prescribed in this study probably due to its established higher efficacy and better control of ocular hypertension compared to other drugs used in the management of glaucoma [14,15].…”

Evaluation of antiglaucoma drug treatment awareness and patient-reported medication adherence: Determinants of glaucoma management

“…There are few studies about POAG prescription patterns in western India;[ 24 25 26 ] hence, we conducted the study wherein the average number of drugs was 2.53. In a study done by Advani et al ., in western India, the average number of antiglaucoma drugs per prescription was 1.36,[ 27 ] and 54% of drugs were prescribed with their generic name. A prescription pattern study ( n = 1400) conducted by Dhali et al .…”