Drug utilization study in patients visiting psychiatric OPD in tertiary care hospital

Background: The illness due to psychiatric diseases and behavioral disorders is enormous, but it remains under represented by conventional public health statistics; which mainly targets mortality more than morbidity or dysfunction. The drug utilization study was conducted to find out problems and provide feedback to prescribers so as to create awareness about irrational use of drugs. This study was conducted in psychiatry outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: A prospective, observational and cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with department of psychiatry in a tertiary care hospital. Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria visiting psychiatric OPD from 01 October 2018 to 31 December 2018 period of 3 months were enrolled in the study. Assessment of the prescriptions was done as per the ICD-10 criteria and World Health Organization-indicators for rational use of drugs (WHO-INRUD). Results: Among total 390 prescriptions; 71.54% was males and 28.46% were females. All the drugs were oral formulations. The burden of diseases are depression 35.89%, anxiety 20.51%, schizophrenia 18.97% and bipolar disorder 11.28% and other psychiatric diseases were 13.33%. Olanzapine was the most common drug which was prescribed followed by alprazolam. Total 1,140 drugs were prescribed out of which 86.32% was psychotropic drug and 13.68% were other like vitamin B-complex, analgesics, anta-acids, antibiotics and NSAIDS. The Most common prescribed class was atypical antipsychotics 26.31% followed by benzodiazepines 20.26%, antipsychotics 19.74%, tricyclic antidepressants 8.16%, anticonvulsants 9.21%, antiepileptics 2.37% and lastly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics was most commonly prescribed drug followed by benzodiazepines. All the drugs were prescribed by their generic names which suggests awareness among prescribers regarding WHO policies for generic prescribing.