A cross-sectional study of drug prescription pattern in psoriasis patients attending dermatology and venereology department in a rural tertiary care teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem disease which predominantly affects skin, joint, scalp and nail. Treatment strategies for psoriasis include topical therapy, systemic therapy and phototherapy (PT). Treatment usually depends on the severity, location and extent of lesion. Drug prescription studies are necessary for the recognition of areas for improvement and improving drug prescribing practices in hospitals. There are very few reports regarding drug prescription pattern in psoriasis patients. Hence we conducted this study.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 50 newly diagnosed psoriasis patients who attended Dermatology and Venereology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. The prescriptions from the patients were collected for the duration of 18 months and details of prescription were collected in case record forms. The assessment of disease severity was done by psoriasis area severity index (PASI) score.Results: Majority of the patients (46%) belonged to the age group of 41-55years. The mean age of the patients was 42.48±12.29 years. Most of the patients with mild form of psoriasis were treated with topical therapy. Topical therapy included high potency steroids alone or in combination with salicylic acid and calcipotriol. Patients with more severe form of disease received combination of topical, systemic and phototherapy. Systemic therapy included oral Methotrexate and phototherapy was given as narrow band UVB (NBUVB). Further long term study is required to for proper assessment of prescription pattern in psoriasis patients.Conclusions: Most of the patients with psoriasis can be effectively treated with topical medications, and additional systemic and/or phototherapy may be required only for severe cases.