Drug prescription patterns in Peshawar – study reports concerning results
PESHAWAR MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR
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Dr. Usman A Raza
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Peshawar, KP – This awareness raising study, which focused on drug prescriptions in Peshawar’s general medical practice, found the completeness of written drug prescriptions to be far below ideal, with many prescriptions missing key elements. However, these findings cannot be generalized to the province or the country. The study involved a review of 1097 prescriptions from general medical practice, and found incomplete information regarding drugs prescribed, and reported legibility issues in more than half of the sampled prescriptions.
Background: Poor prescription practices are a worldwide concern, and not only in developing countries. This study attempted to describe prescription patterns in general medical practice of Peshawar.
Study Method: The study involved a cross-sectional survey of drug prescriptions from. A total of 1097 prescriptions that included 3640 drugs, were analyzed to assess completeness, average number of drugs, prescription frequency of various drug classes, and number of brands prescribed.
Results of the study: While the prescriptions assessed in this study contained some of the elements considered essential for written prescriptions, none of the prescriptions contained all of these components together. Researchers had difficulty reading 58.5% of prescriptions. Physician’s name and registration number were not mentioned in 89% and 98.2% prescriptions respectively. Over 78% prescriptions did not have a diagnosis or indication mentioned. Dosage, duration of use, signature of physician and directions for taking drugs were not written in 63.8%, 55.4%, 18.5% and 10.9% of prescriptions respectively. On average each prescription included 3.32 drugs. Most frequently prescribed drug classes included analgesics (61.7%), anti-infective agents (57.2%), multi-vitamins (37.8%) and gastrointestinal drugs (34.4%).
The authors of the study conclude that the high average number of drugs per prescription, and the high frequency of analgesics, antimicrobials, multivitamins and anti-ulcer drugs found in this study, should be cause for concern and merits further research. They conclude that quality of written prescriptions sampled from Peshawar, was weak in terms of completeness. These problems may point towards systemic issues involving multiple stakeholders, and concerted efforts at various fronts are required to enable physicians to discharge their duties effectively and safely.
The authors caution that the study should be interpreted in context and generalizations / misinterpretations must be avoided. Instead, the results should be used to fuel positive improvement efforts in this area.
