Drug Prescription
Pattern in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital
Igbiks Tamuno1* and
Joseph O Fadare2
1Department
of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Bayero University,
Kano, Nigeria 2Department of Internal
Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria
*For correspondence:
Email:
igbikstamuno@yahoo.com
Received: 2 February
2011 Revised
accepted: 19 January 2012
Tropical Journal of
Pharmaceutical Research, February 2012; 11(1): 146-152
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v11i1.19
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the prescribing pattern of
clinicians in the general outpatient unit of the Aminu
Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano (AKTH),.
Methods:
This was a descriptive retrospective study conducted
using 500 prescriptions made at the general outpatient
unit of AKTH between April and July 2009.
Results:
A
total of 497 prescriptions were successfully analyzed.
The average number of drugs per encounter in the
facility was 3.04. Generic prescribing was low at 42.7 %
while antibiotic prescription was high at 34.4 %.
Injections were prescribed in 4 % of encounters while
36.2, 19.1, 25.8 and 1 % of encounters had analgesics,
antimalarials, antihypertensives and anxiolytics
prescribed, respectively. Vitamins were prescribed in
9.7 % of encounters.
Conclusion: Polypharmacy, low rate of generic
prescriptions and overuse of antibiotics still remain a
problem in health care facilities in Nigeria.. This
calls for sustained interventional strategies and
periodic audit at all levels of health care to avoid the
negative consequences of inappropriate prescriptions.
Keywords: Prescribing pattern, Generic drugs,
Tertiary hospital, Essential drugs, Nigeria
