---

Prescription audit of psychiatry department at a tertiary care hospital in South India using the World Health Organization recommendations – A cross sectional study

---

Original Article

Author Details : Vijaya Santhi Thulasiraman, Nitya Selvaraj*, Shanthi Manickam

Volume : 9, Issue : 4, Year : 2022

Article Page : 214-218

https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijpp.2022.039

Suggest article by email

Get Permission

---

Abstract

Background: This study mainly highlights the importance of regular prescription auditing which helps to improve the overall quality of the prescription writing pattern and as well paves a better path to the upliftment of the healthcare system.
Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the prescription pattern and drug-drug interactions of Psychiatric drugs in prescription in a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and Methods: Prescription auditing of Psychiatric prescriptions was carried out using the World Health Organization Recommendations and Drug-drug interaction (DDI) was performed using a drug interaction checker software. A total of 600 psychiatric prescriptions were collected, and the data were presented in the form of descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, and mean ± standard deviation.
Results: Analysis of the data revealed that the average number of drugs per encounter was 4.2 ± 2.5. All the drugs were prescribed from the essential drug, and 594 (99%) of the prescriptions were prescribed with the generic name. Dizziness followed by irregular heart rhythm or QT prolongation are the encountered DDIs that were present in 85 (14%) and 19 (3%) prescriptions respectively. The cause of the above DDI was seen in the drug combinations such as Lorazepam + Haloperidol + Trihexyphenidyl, Lorazepam + Risperidone, and Venlafaxine + Olanzapine, Lithium + Quetiapine respectively.
Conclusion: This study has fulfilled the majority of WHO recommendations except for writing in capital letters and also brings out the common drug interaction that happens with psychiatric medications and the reasoning behind them.

Keywords: WHO core prescribing indicators, QT prolongation, Drug interaction, Prescription audit, Prescribing Pattern, Generic Name, Dizziness

How to cite : Thulasiraman V S, Selvaraj N, Manickam S, Prescription audit of psychiatry department at a tertiary care hospital in South India using the World Health Organization recommendations – A cross sectional study. Indian J Pharm Pharmacol 2022;9(4):214-218

This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.