ABSTRACT:
Background: Rational use of drugs is well recognized as an important part of health policy. The studies which had done to document drug use patterns indicates that overprescribing, multidrug prescribing, misuse of drugs, use of unnecessary expensive drugs and overuse of antibiotics and injections are most common problems of irrational use drugs by prescriber as well as consumers. Acute pharyngitis is second most common and self limiting minor upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in India and worldwide so everyone is worried about it and hence many drugs are still over prescribed especially antibiotics. So it is important to promote appropriate use of drugs in health care system is must and needed in achieving quality of health and medical care for patients and community. Therefore present study was done to analyze the appropriate and Rational Use of Drugs (RUD) in Acute Pharyngitis(AP). Objective: The goal was to study and evaluate the prescription patterns with respect to rationality of drugs used in the patients clinically diagnosed for acute pharyngitis. Method: This was an observational, cross sectional study carried out in civil hospital and Private ENT hospital at Nashik. Total 178 prescriptions of patients clinically diagnosed as acute pharyngitis and written by qualified physician were collected and assessed for RUD as per WHO’s standard guidelines. Results: We studied 178 prescriptions of acute pharyngitis between age group 18-60 years. Total 47 different drugs from different categories were used out of which 80.85% were right for treating pharyngitis. From prescription it had been noticed that only 66.85% prescriptions were correct and respective to indication. Right dose of used drugs was mentioned in 40.44% prescriptions where as duration of therapy is right in about 71.35% prescriptions. Around 60% drugs are prescribed from essential medicine list. It had been come to our knowledge that in 26.40% prescription act of commission is followed and in 18.53% act of omission is followed. There was not a single prescription in which banned drug formulation was used for treating clinically diagnosed acute pharyngitis. Conclusion: Prescription patterns of AP are most irrational with respect to right indication and right dosage schedule than duration of therapy. Inappropriate dose and indication may lead to different ADRs and may increase the cost of treatment.