title: Patterns and problems of drug consumption in a developing country.
abstract: Delayed and sometimes total lack of communications, lower standards of medical care, low physician: population ratio, absence of monitoring systems affect all phases of drug consumption in developing countries--from procedures for introducing a new drug to its marketing on a broad scale, and ultimate decline. The number of prescriptions and the choice of drug are determined only partly by physicians. Such other factors as medicaments furnished by the government either free or at a small charge, the type of health service, accessibility to paramedical and nonmedical advice, as well as hard-sell marketing practices, often through the mass media, tend to set the pattern of drug usage. The practice of drug storming in "home pharmacies", a phenomenon surveyed by the author, is described and the reasons for it analyzed. In general, the categories of drugs (e.g., antibiotics, cardiovascular, analgesics) consumed are the same in the rest of Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Among the minor tranquilizers, the consumption of meprobamate has risen by about a third, chlordiazepoxide markedly, while phenobarbital consumption has remained about the same from 1969 to 1973. This is said to illustrate the pattern of an upward curve in consumption of a new drug, and the displacement of an old one. The overall rise of these drugs during this period was 72.1% in Hungary. Similar surveys are reported for oral hypoglycemic and antiarrhythmic drugs. Of hypotensive drugs, rauwolfia usage has declined and methyldopa has increased by over 200%.
mesh_terms: D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003906:Developing Countries; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004363:Drug Utilization; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012651:Self Medication; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents