Abstract

Background: Pregnancy care is one of the greatest challenges in medicine and it demands a special care in the use of drugs because of altered physiology. For the use of drugs during pregnancy immense precaution has to be taken because health of both mother and foetus may be affected.Aimsand Objectives: To study and evaluate the drug use pattern among inpatients ofOBGDepartmentinatertiarycareteachinghospital,tostudyandevaluatethepharmacologicalinterventionsincomplicated pregnanciesinobstetricwardinatertiarycarehospital,andtoassesstheWorldHealthOrganization(WHO)coreprescription indicators.
Materials and Methods: Prospective observational study was carried out among inpatient of obstetric wards of tertiarycare teachinghospitaloveraperiodof3months.Allpregnantwomendiagnosedtohavecomplicationswereincluded in the study. The data regarding demographic details, period of gestation, provisional diagnosis, and complete prescription were collected using specially designed proforma and were analyzed for drug use pattern, WHO core drug prescribing indicators and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pregnancy drug risk category. Result: Among 285 patients, 105 (37%) wereprimigravidaand180(63%)weremultigravida.Majorityofthem(82%)wereintheagegroupof20-30years.Anemiais the most common condition complicating pregnancy, constituting 24% followed by oligohydramnios (13%), PIH (9%), hyperemesis gravidarum (7%) of overall complications, respectively. Haematinics and blood components (20%), antibiotics (13%) are the most commonly prescribed drugs followed by protein supplement (11%) and steroids (8%). As per FDA pregnancy drug category, category-B (41.17%) was most frequently prescribed followed by category-A and C each contributing to 29.41%. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 57% and from essential drug list it was 42%. Conclusion: Haematinics, protein supplements, and antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed drugs. None of the drugs were from Category D and X. There was lesser number of drugs prescribed by generic name, which needs improvement.