Pattern of drug utilization among hypertensives

The study was conducted to describe the drug utilization pattern among hypertensive and diabeties mellitus patients patients in a tertiary care setting. A cross sectional prospective study was conducted
between 2017-2019 on randomly selected 740 patiens suggering from hypertension and diabetes mellitus at a tertiary care hospital in North
India. The study reaveled that diuretics were the most frequently prescribed anti-hypertensive class (49.4%), followed by centrally acting agents (13.3%), calcium channel blockers (20%), angiotensine converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (9.6%) and beta blockers (1.9%). Aspirin was the most frequently prescribed adjoining non-antihypertensive drugs (39.7%), followed by anxiolytics (23.6%), other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (14.8%). Diabetes mellitus was observed to be highest in patients with the age group of 60-70 years, affecting 66% males and 34% females. Among the participants (84%) were already on treatment for diabetes while (16%) were diagnosed at the time of admission. We observed that (54%) patients were treated with insulin + oral hypoglycemic agents, (26%) were treated with only Insulin while (20%) patients were prescribed only oral hypoglycemic agents. The most common comorbid conditions observed by us were hypertension, chronic renal disease, diabetic foot, septicemia, urinary tract infections and other susceptible infections. To conclude, the study reveals that Metformin continues to be the choice of oral hypoglycemic agents with least adverse effects and insulin was used to treat uncontrolled state, where physicians have greatly considered the socio-economic status while prescribing whichis obvious with least use of costly insulin preparations.

Author(s): Amit Sharma

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