THE PATTERN OF DRUG USES IN PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING THE ANTENATAL CLINIC OF THE OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY DEPARTMENT AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2022.v15i9.45028Keywords:
Pregnant women, Antenatal check-up, Antimicrobials and gastrointestinal drugs, MortalityAbstract
Objective: The aim of the study was to study and evaluate the pattern of drug use in pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of obstetrics and gynaecology department at a tertiary care hospital.
Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in M.G.M. Medical College and Hospital, Kishanganj, Bihar. The study included 368 pregnant women who consented and provided written informed consent for participation in this study during the study period from January 2020 to November 2021.
Results: Time for seeking the first antenatal check-up was majorly in 1st trimester (48.10%), followed by 35.60% in the 2nd and 16.30% in the 3rd trimester. A total of 3054 drugs were prescribed in all three trimesters from all organ systems. The majority belonged to blood and bone-forming agents, followed by antimicrobials and gastrointestinal drugs. Analyzing the prescribing trend grossly depicts that the drug prescribing showed a gradual increase from 18 to 2nd trimester, followed by a slow drop in 3rd trimester. During the entire study period, there were 177 prescriptions for 1st trimester, 306 prescriptions for 2nd trimester, and 366 prescriptions for 3rd trimester.
Conclusion: Our study site revealed a greater tendency to prescribe by generic name rather than by brand name in our hospital, which is a good sign as it reduces the economic burden on the patients. In other previous studies, it was less. Prescribing percentage of antibiotics in all trimesters was on the high rise, while the percentage of encounters with injection was within acceptable ranges. The majority of prescribing corroborated with national drug policy and was in concurrence with the national drug formulary and NLEM 2015, which reflects the essence of rational prescribing of pregnancy drugs in our set-up.
Downloads
References
Sachdeva P, Patel BG, Patel BK. Drug use in pregnancy; a point to ponder! Indian J Pharm Sci 2009;71:1-7. doi: 10.4103/0250- 474X.51941.
Webster WS, Freeman JA. Prescription drugs and pregnancy. Expert Opin Pharmacother 2003;4:949-61. DOI: 10.1517/14656566.4.6.949
Bánhidy F, Lowry RB, Czeizel AE. Risk and benefit of drug use during pregnancy. Int J Med Sci 2005;2:100-6.
Sannerstedt R, Lundborg P, Danielsson BR, Kihlström I, Alván G, Prame B, et al. Drugs during pregnancy: An issue of risk classification and information to prescribers. Drug Saf 1996;14:69-77. DOI: 10.2165/00002018-199614020-00001
Shaikh Z, Pathak R. Revised Kuppuswamy and B G prasad socio-economic scales for 2016. Int J Community Med Public Health 2017;4:997-9. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040. ijcmph20171313
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification. Available from: https://www.who.int/medicines/regulation/medicines-safety/ toolkit_atc/en
World Health Organization. Drug Prescribing Indicators. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018. Available from: https://apps. who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Js2289e/3.1.html [Last accessed on 2018 Aug 30].
Food and Drug Administration. Pregnancy Categories. Silver Spring, Maryland: Food and Drug Administration; 2018. Available from: https://www.drugs.com/pregnancycategories.html [Last accessed on 2018 Aug 30].
Lagoy CT, Joshi N, Cragan JD, Rasmussen SA. Report from the CDC: Medication use during pregnancy and lactation: An urgent call for public health action. J Womens Health 2005;14:104-9. DOI: 10.1089/ jwh.2005.14.104
Parisi MA, Spong CY, Zajicek A, Guttmacher AE. We don’t know what we don’t study: The case for research on medication effects in pregnancy. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 2011;157:247-50. PMCID: PMC3140632 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.c.30309
Stephansson O, Granath F, Svensson T, Haglund B, Ekbom A, Kieler H. Drug use during pregnancy in Sweden-assessed by the prescribed drug register and the medical birth register. Clin Epidemiol 2011;3:43-50. PMCID: PMC3046184 DOI: 10.2147/CLEP.S16305
Mitchell AA, Gilboa SM, Werler MM, Kelley KE, Louik C, Hernández- Díaz S. Medication use during pregnancy, with particular focus on prescription drugs: 1976-2008. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2011;205:51.el-8. PMCID: PMC3793635 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2011.02.029
Sharma R, Kapoor B, Verma U. Drug utilization pattern during pregnancy in North India. J Med Sci 2006;60:277-87. PMID: 16864912
Misra A. Prescribing pattern of antimicrobials in the in patients department of obstetrics and gynaecology at a tertiary care teaching hospital at Nepal. Int J Pharm Biol Arch 2014;4:893-8. Corpus ID: 73007692
Sasidharan P, Kolasani BP, Divyashanthi CM. An observational prospective study on prescribing pattern of drugs among pregnant women admitted in antenatal ward of a tertiary care teaching hospital in coastal town of South India. Natl J Physiol Pharm Pharmacol 2017;7:25-31. DOI:10.5455/njppp.2016.6.0616412072016
Zhu X, Qi X, Hao J, Huang Z, Zhang Z, Xing X, et al. Pattern of drug use during the first trimester among Chinese women: Data from a population based cohort study. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 2010;66:511-18. PMID: 20127231 DOI: 10.1007/s00228-009-0781-x
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2022 Dr Vidyabrat Rakesh Chaurasiya
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The publication is licensed under CC By and is open access. Copyright is with author and allowed to retain publishing rights without restrictions.
