title: Assessment of prescribing practices among urban and rural general practitioners in Tamil Nadu.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studying drug use pattern among medical practitioners is of vital importance in the present scenario where irrational drug use and development of drug resistance is becoming rampant.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess, the pattern of prescribing practices among the general practitioners in a defined rural and urban area of Tamil Nadu.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community based descriptive study was conducted to collect 600 prescriptions from the catchment areas of rural and urban health training centers of a medical college using prescribing indicators as per the WHO "How to investigate drug use in health facilities" tool.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This prescription study revealed that multivitamins (19.5%), antibiotics (19.3%), drugs for gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) (18%), analgesic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs/ (NSAID's) (15.1%), and antihistaminic (12.5%) were prescribed frequently. Among the antibiotics, amoxicillin (49.2%) was the most commonly prescribed followed by gentamicin (31.7%). Percentage of prescriptions with an antibiotic was 55% and nearly 62% of the practitioners prescribed drugs by their generic names. As a practice of poly-pharmacy, it was observed that the average number of drugs prescribed in urban and rural area was nearly 5 and 4, respectively. Nearly 80% of the urban and rural practitioners were prescribing at least one injection. Study of the quality of prescriptions revealed that there was poor legibility, high usage of abbreviations, inadequate details of the drugs, and absence of signature by practitioners in the prescriptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study clearly highlights the practice of poly-pharmacy, low usage of generic drugs, injudicious usage of antibiotics and injections and low usage of drugs prescribed from essential drugs list.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Sekharan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gopalakrishnan
authors.forename: Parasuraman
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ganeshkumar
authors.forename: Ajitha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katta
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005765:Gastrointestinal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006633:Histamine Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population; D014815:Vitamins / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D005765:Gastrointestinal Agents; D006633:Histamine Antagonists; D014815:Vitamins
keywords: Drug prescriptions; essential drugs; general practitioners; inappropriate prescribing; primary care physicians