KARACHI, Dec 10: Despite the fact that drug therapy is an extremely specialized field as all the drugs are chemical poison and have to be used with utmost caution, yet the prescribing practices of local consultants are registered to be liberal and not rational.

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

The country’s per capita income is US $480 per annum. At least 60 per cent of the local population earns even less than average per capita income and 30 per cent of Pakistanis are living below the poverty line, authors reminded in the report published in the drug bulletin of the Network.

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

The study says the prescribed antimicrobial 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.

The number of drugs prescribed from the National Essential Drug List of Pakistan were 49.81 per cent and only 12 per cent of these were prescribed by their generic names. Vitamins and mineral preparations came 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 inbuilt risks, which may not even be foreseeable.—APP