KARACHI, Oct 8: Despite the fact that drug therapy is an extremely specialized field, as all drugs have to be used with utmost caution, the prescribing practices of local consultants was noted to be liberal and irrational.

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

The country’s per capita income comes to $480 (Rs6,900) per annum. 60 per cent of the local population earns even less than the average per capita income, and 30 per cent of Pakistanis live below the poverty line, authors reminded in a report published in the drug bulletin Network.

The study, conducted to analyze prescribing practices of Karachi based consultants, noticed a general tendency among many consultants to prescribe the latest, the more 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’s and injections was common, while fewer drugs were prescribed by generic names. This was despite the fact that generic drugs are usually cheaper than equally potent branded drugs.

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

While the overuse of antimicrobial’s may be widespread across the world, in developing countries, antibiotics are the most common drugs sold, and the most frequently misused.

In the mentioned study, prescribed antimicrobial’s constituted 13.45 per cent of prescribed drugs received by some 45.19 per cent patients, followed by injections, constituting 24.96 per cent of all prescriptions.—APP