title: Physicians medication prescribing in primary care in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. Literature review, part 1: variations in drug prescribing.
abstract: Rational prescribing is associated with improved safety in drug use, better quality of life for patients and cost-effective care. Medication prescribing is a relatively unexplored area of research in Saudi Arabia and until now most studies have been in the secondary and tertiary health care system. This paper is the first of 3 review articles that form the background for a series of 5 interconnected studies of prescribing patterns and medication errors in the public and private primary health care sectors of Saudi Arabia. A MEDLINE search was conducted to identify papers published in peer-reviewed journals over the previous 3 decades. The paper reviews variations in prescribing patterns and influences on physicians' prescribing behaviour worldwide and in Saudi Arabia.
authors: General Administration for Mental Health and Social Services and Mledical Research, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Neyaz
authors: N A
authors: NA
authors: Qureshi
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Khoja
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Magzoub
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Haycox
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Walley
mesh_terms: D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012529:Saudi Arabia