Abstract:
Introduction: Skin diseases are the major contributors of disease burden in
society. Dermatological therapy ultimate goal is achieved by administering the
safest and least number of drugs. The problem gets compounded with the inappropriate
and irrational use of medicines. Therefore, periodic prescription
audit in the form of prescribing patterns is away to improve irrational prescription.
The objective of this study to assess the prescription patterns of
dermatological agents in Borumeda hospital. Method: Hospital based retrospective
cross sectional study in which prescribing patterns of dermatological
agents are assessed. A total of 385 samples of patient record prescription from
November/1/2016 to December/30/2016, and the sample were selected by
systematic random sampling technique. Sample prescriptions were reviewed
using structural data collection format. The Collected data was analyzed by
using SPSS version 20. Result: Regarding rout of administration, the maximum
number of drugs was prescribed topically (66.2%). Topical steroids were
the most commonly prescribed drugs (25.3%). Use of generic prescribing in
single drug prescribing was 81.7%. The prevalence of atopic dermatitis was
higher (26.3%, 20.8%) in both male and female respectively followed by scabies
in male with 12.2% and Acne vulgaris (12.9%) in female. Number of
drugs per prescription was higher (2.46) than WHO standard (<2). Conclusion:
The current study reveals that topical corticosteroids were commonly
prescribed drugs in the dermatology unit and the prescribing practice imitates
incidence of polypharmacy.
