Assessment of prescription patterns and drug use across the Kurdistan region.

Errors in drug prescriptions are the most common preventable medication errors encountered in clinical practices worldwide. The aim of this research is to examine the pattern of prescriptions and drug use in the Kurdistan region and to determine whether the drug prescribing was based on rational therapeutic consideration. A cross sectional-observational study was conducted in the Kurdistan region of Iraq over a period of five months. A total of 1000 prescriptions were selected randomly from different pharmacies and data obtained from each prescription. In these prescriptions a total of 2878 medications were prescribed. The percentage of medications including antibiotics, supplement, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs and other painkillers 51.8%, 44.2%, 31.8%, and 21.8% per encounter respectively. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.8. Drugs prescribed by generic name were 27% and more than 98 per cent of prescriptions were handwritten. The duration of therapy was mentioned in 56.5% of prescriptions. However, the dose and dosage form of medications were recorded 62% and 87.3% respectively. The percentage of prescriptions signed by the prescriber was 88.1%.