title: Drug utilization study in dermatology in a tertiary hospital in Delhi.
abstract: The present study was undertaken to describe patterns of dermatological drug utilization in a tertiary hospital in Delhi by measuring WHO delineated drug use indicators. Six hundred and six prescriptions of dermatology out-patients were analyzed and the data collected were used to evaluate the following drug use indicators: average number of drug per prescription, average consultation time, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage of encounters with an antibiotic prescribed, percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed and percentage of drug prescribed from the essential drugs list or formulary. The average number of drugs per prescription +/- SD was found to be 2.6 +/- 1.2, average consultation time +/- SD was 4.4 +/- 2.6 minutes, percentage of drug prescribed by generic name was 6.98, percentage of encounters with an antibiotic and injection prescribed were 46.86 and 6.76 respectively and 23% of the total drugs prescribed were from Delhi State Essential Drugs Formulary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Pushp Vihar Sector-III, New Delhi-110 017.
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maini
authors.forename: Kaushal Kumar
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Nihar Ranjan
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: Shyam Sunder
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Agrawal
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D003880:Dermatology / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents