Abstract

Dr. Annuradha Joshi, Drashti Shah*, Vanshi Kabrawala, Keyur Mistry, Rajvee Thakkar, Khushi Patel, Piyal Patel

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Drug utilization studies play a crucial role in promoting rational prescribing practices, understanding drug usage prevalence within populations, and evaluating the impact of specific interventions on community drug utilization trends. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted over six months in the psychiatry ward of a tertiary care hospital. Data were collected to analyze psychiatric diagnoses, antipsychotic prescription patterns, and prescription rationality based on the World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators. Additionally, the defined daily dose (DDD), prescribed daily dose (PDD), and the PDD-to-DDD ratio of the antipsychotics were assessed. Results: The majority of the patients were male (60%), with most aged between 31 and 40 years. Schizophrenia (30%) was the most frequent diagnosis, followed by bipolar disorder (20%) and mania (16.6%). Atypical antipsychotics were predominantly prescribed (80%). Sedative-hypnotics were the most commonly co-prescribed drugs (40%). Polypharmacy was observed in 13.3% of the prescriptions. The average number of drugs per prescription was greater than two. Prescriptions using generic names were relatively low (65%). The PDD-to-DDD ratio was found to be less than 1 for sertraline, clonazepam, estazolam, quetiapine, zolpidem, alprazolam, mirtazapine, and clozapine; equal to 1 for escitalopram, risperidone, haloperidol, and amitriptyline; and greater than 1 for olanzepine. Conclusion: This study offers valuable insights into antipsychotic prescribing patterns for psychiatric patients, demonstrating that most prescriptions were rational and complete, with appropriate drug utilization in the majority of cases.