Authors: Any OH, Sultana R, Mazumder MK, Soniya F, Akter M, Khan N, Nahar L.
A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among individuals attending the psychiatry out- patient department from 1st February 2010 to April 30th 2010 in Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh to see the patterns of prescription and drug use in psychiatry out-patient department of teaching hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A total 300 patients were included in this study. Simultaneously a total of 100 patients were interviewed by questionnaire to identify the educational and socio-economic status of the patient. The pharmacological classification of psychotropic drugs, clinical indication, average number of drugs per prescription, adverse effect, cost, generic or trade name; formulation, frequency and duration of therapy, special warning or instruction regarding possible side effect and percentage of additional (anticholinergic) drugs prescribed were noted. The antipsychotic drugs were prescribed 36% anxiolytics drugs were prescribed 15.43%, antidepressant drugs were prescribed 9.97%, Antimanic drugs were prescribed 16.39% and other drugs were prescribed 22.95%. The commonest clinical indication were schizophrenia and other psychotic disorder 40%, bipolar mood disorder 39%, depressive disorder 9.66%, anxiety disorder 2.66%, somatoform disorder 1.66%, OCD 02%, others 3.33%. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.44 % drugs were prescribed by generic name. Use of oral psychotropic drugs 91.33% was frequent but injection use 8.33% was very low, additional (anticholinergic) drugs were prescribed 76% of prescription. Average cost of drugs per prescription was 181 taka. So, the study will help to understand the trends in prescribing psychotropic drugs and will provide guidelines for designing appropriate future intervention strategies in order to promote rational prescribing and improve the quality of health care.
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