title: Prescription patterns of general practitioners in peshawar, pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out prescription patterns of general practitioners in Peshawar.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey of drug prescriptions was done at six major hospitals and pharmacies of Peshawar between April and May 2011. A total of 1097 prescriptions that included 3640 drugs, were analyzed to assess completeness, average number of drugs, prescription frequency of various drug classes, and number of brands prescribed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No prescription contained all essential components of a prescription. Legibility was poor in 58.5% prescriptions. Physician's name and registration number were not mentioned in 89% and 98.2% prescriptions respectively. Over 78% prescriptions did not have diagnosis or indication mentioned. Dosage, duration of use, signature of physician and directions for taking drugs were not written in 63.8%, 55.4%, 18.5% and 10.9% of prescriptions respectively. On average each prescription included 3.32 drugs. Most frequently prescribed drug classes included analgesics (61.7%), anti-infective agents (57.2%), multi-vitamins (37.8%) and gastrointestinal drugs (34.4%). We found 206, 130, 105 and 101 different brands of anti-infective agents, gastrointestinal drugs, analgesics and multivitamins being prescribed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed a high number of average drugs per prescription mostly using brand names, and over-prescription of analgesics, antimicrobials, multivitamins and anti-ulcer drugs. Quality of written prescriptions was poor in terms of completeness.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Usman Ahmad Raza, MS, Assistant Professor in Community Health Sciences, Peshawar Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Usman Ahmad
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Raza
authors.affiliation: Dr. Tayyeba Khursheed, MBBS, House Physician, Department of Medicine, Islam Teaching Hospital, Sialkot, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Tayyeba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Khursheed
authors.affiliation: Dr. Muhammad Irfan, MCPS, FCPS, MS, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Peshawar Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Irfan
authors.affiliation: Dr. Maryam Abbas, MBBS, House Physician, Department of Medicine, Mufti Mehmood Teaching Hospital, D I Khan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.affiliation: Dr. Uma Maheswari Irfan, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Uma Maheswari
authors.initials: UM
authors.lastname: Irfan
keywords: General practitioner; Polypharmacy; Prescription