English

Abstract

BACKGROUND The current study was undertaken to evaluate the prescribing pattern of drugs in relation to the duration of diabetes in outdoor patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary care teaching hospital. There is scanty data on assessment of prescribing pattern of antidiabetic drugs in relation to the duration of diabetes especially from Indian population and no such study has been cited in our setup. METHODS This is a prospective observational study conducted in outdoor patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus for a period of 6 months. Our study sample included 155 patients whose prescriptions were analysed and detailed information such as demographic details, presenting complaints, past medical history of patients were recorded in their patient profile form after taking informed consent from those patients who fulfilled our study criteria. RESULTS Data of 155 patients was collected and analysed. The average age was 51.21 ± 9.73 with 92 % of patients being more than 40 years of age and most of the patients (50 %) have diabetes of duration < 5 years. The female to male ratio was 1.76. A Multidrug antidiabetic regimen (72 %) was more common than monotherapy (28 %). Commonly prescribed drugs were biguanides (metformin) (87 %) followed by sulfonylureas (SU) (45 %), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor (DPP4i) (42 %), and insulin (14 %). Metformin was the most commonly used drug followed by glimepiride and teneligliptin. Drug combinations were more common than a single drug. Metformin + glimepiride was the most common drug combination followed by metformin + teneligliptin. Commonly prescribed drugs for comorbid conditions were telmisartan, levothyroxine and atorvastatin. CONCLUSIONS It was found that the prescribing pattern of drugs was mostly as per the recommendations of different guidelines. The study exhibited a significant increase in the utilization of two-drug combination therapies. Biguanides were the most commonly prescribed oral hypoglycaemic and metformin with glimepiride has been widely used. There was a proportionate rise in the use of insulin with an increase in the duration of diabetes. Brand names were commonly used compared to generic names, so we need to promote generic prescriptions. KEYWORDS Antidiabetic Drugs, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Prescribing Pattern, Duration of Diabetes