Abstract

Dinka Dugassa*, Ginenus Fekadu and Firomsa Bekele

ABSTRACT

Back ground: Drugs are one of the health care component need to be used rationally and appropriate. The prescribing habits among psychiatrists can be improved by creating awareness about the choice of drugs according to the standard treatment guidelines and from the Essential Medicines List. Antipsychotic medications are widely prescribed and the utilization of antipsychotic drugs is increasing. There is no enough information on the patterns of drug use in different part of the world including Ethiopia. Objective: This study aimed to assess prescribing patterns of psychotropic drugs and to detect potential prescribing errors in psychiatric patients in Shambu General Hospital. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on prescription containing psychotropic drugs in Shambu General Hospital (SGH), from January 28-February 08/2018. Prescription data was obtained from pharmacy dispensing records. Results: A total of 384 prescription papers containing psychotropic drugs were included in the study. Majority of the patients attending the psychotropic medication were the age of between 20-49 years. The most commonly prescribed categories of drugs were in descending order of frequency: antipsychotic, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), antiepilepticus, anxiolytics/sedatives, anticholinergics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Among the individual drugs the most commonly prescribed anti psychotic, was chlorpromazine 126 drugs (20.66%). From antidepressant categories tricyclic antidepressants (Amitriptylline 73 drugs (11.97%)) was the frequently prescribed and followed by the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors fluoxetine 16 drugs. Phenobarbitone 54 drugs (8.85%) and phenytoin 32 drugs (5.25%) were the most frequently prescribed psychotropic drugs from antiepilepticus drugs categories. Diazepam 38 drugs and trihexyphenidyl 30 drugs were the least prescribed drugs from anxiolytics and anticholinergics class of drugs respectively. Conclusion and Recommendation: Antipsychotic drugs were the mostprescribed psychotropic drug, followed by antidepressant drugs. Chlorpromazine was the most frequently prescribed drugs from phenothiazines family and tricyclic antidepressants (especially amitriptylline) remain the most frequently prescribed class of antidepressants. Identifying and correcting prescribing and medication problems are the common duty of all professionals. So, interdisciplinary communication should be improved among them.