KARACHI, June 8: Despite the fact that drug therapy is an extremely specialised field as all the drugs are chemical poison and have to be used with utmost caution, the prescription practice of local consultants is irrationally careless.

A study jointly conducted by departments of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Forensic Medicine, Bolan Medical College, Quetta, the National Institute of Child Health and the CPSP revealed that the average number of drugs per prescription were 4.51 against average daily drug cost of Rs133.41 incurred by patients.

The study conducted to analyze prescription practices of Karachi-based consultants noticed a general tendency to prescribe latest, expensive, and heavily promoted agents as the first line of therapy rather than older, less expensive and equally- effective drugs.

It was further observed that the use of poly-pharmacy, overuse of antimicrobial and injections were common while fewer drugs were prescribed by generic names. This was despite the fact that generic drugs are usually cheaper than equipotent branded drugs.

The reason for prescribing drugs mostly by branded names may be the availability of some brand name drugs at the same price as those by generic name, nonavailability of generic equivalents for some newly introduced drugs and the doctors’ perception that brand name drugs are more reliable.

The prescribed antimicrobial constituted 13.45 per cent of prescribed drugs received by 45.19 per cent patients, followed by injections constituting 24.96 per cent of all prescriptions.

The number of drugs prescribed from the National Essential Drug List of Pakistan (NEDLP) were 49.81 per cent and only 12 per cent of these were prescribed by their generic names.

Vitamins and mineral preparations came up to 40.96 per cent of all prescriptions.

The researchers maintained that prescribing drugs should not be taken lightly as even the so-called innocent drugs have in-built risks, which might not even be foreseeable.—APP