Drug Utilization Pattern of Antipsychotics Among Patients Attending Psychiatry OPD in A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital: A Cross-sectional Observational Study

Abstract

Antipsychotic medications are the primary therapeutic interventions in the treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders. Prescribing trends of antipsychotics has modified over the decade with accessibility of atypical antipsychotics. Hence continuous studies on contemporary prescribing patterns are needed to provide most upgraded, effective and rational treatment of psychoses. A cross sectional study of patients receiving antipsychotics was carried out in the Psychiatry Out Patients Department (OPD) of K R Hospital, Mysuru for a period of six months. All relevant data of the enrolled patients was collected from various data sources and documented in a suitably designed data collection forms to evaluate and to understand the pattern and extent of medication use by using WHO-CORE indicators and to systematically classify drugs using WHO-ATC system and to represent diagnosed psychiatric disorder according to WHO-ICD 10 version. We incorporated an aggregate of 200 study population. Male preponderance (55%) was observed when compared to females (45%) who attended the psychiatry OPD. The most prevalent psychiatric disorder was F20 (Psychosis/Unspecified psychosis/Schizophrenia/ Chronic Psychosis/ Delusional disorder/ Unspecified psychosis with Depression) comprised 60% of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in our study population. The average number of antipsychotic per prescription was 1.33±0.46. 90.63% of antipsychotic drugs were prescribed by their generic names. Additionally, 2% of antipsychotic injectables were present in the prescription, 0.34% minimal antibiotic medications were prescribed and no fixed dose combinations were documented. Higher inclination towards atypical antipsychotics was observed than Typical antipsychotics. Olanzapine was the most routinely prescribed antipsychotic followed by Risperidone. Antipsychotic polypharmacy was observed in 21% patients in our study population. The WHO Core Prescribing indications corresponded with the optimal values, suggesting rational drug therapy and thus eradicating probability of irrational prescribing practices. The findings are able to be used as benchmark for the healthcare facilities and as a basis for further follow up of quality of drug use.