Abstract
Inappropriate analgesic prescriptions is associated with poor management of pain leading to low recovery, high morbidity, increase hospital stay, decrease patient satisfaction, high costs of admission and adverse drug reactions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the analgesic usage by the medical prescribers at the inpatient and outpatient clinic of a teaching hospital. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional analgesic utilization study, the age, sex, the drugs prescribed per patient were recorded and analgesic prescriptions were analyzed by Pearson test and statistical significance was determined at P<0.05. A total of 2920 prescriptions were analyzed, 88.9% of the patients were prescribed analgesics, 51.9% were males, majority of them were between 21 to 41 yrs (30.5%). Acetaminophen was the most prescribed analgesic (46.1%), the most prescribed analgesic combination was ketoprofen and ibuprofen (14.4%), 75.6% of the patients were placed on analgesic oral dosage forms and majority of these drugs were prescribed in generic names.
Highlights
Pain is an unpleasant emotional situation which causes reduction in living quality and functional situation of the patients associated with increase in the fatigue levels [1] and impairments in daily life activities in working capacity and social interactions [2]
Ketoprofen and Ibuprofen had the highest analgesic combination prescribed for 8.3% Inpatient and 6.0% outpatient, followed by ketoprofen and pentazocine prescribed for 9.6% inpatients and 4.2% outpatients while 6.6% and 6.0% were placed on Ibuprofen and acetaminophen
Ketoprofen, 0.2% piroxicam, 11.8% tramadol and 0.2% pethidine were prescribed in generic name for both inpatients and outpatients while 6.5% of methyl salicylates were prescribed in trade name
Summary
Pain is an unpleasant emotional situation which causes reduction in living quality and functional situation of the patients associated with increase in the fatigue levels [1] and impairments in daily life activities in working capacity and social interactions [2]. The undesired problems in psychological and social well-being cause by pain [3], have directed both the patients and caregivers to seek for different searches in pain management [4]. Research has shown that over prescribing, multi-drug prescribing, misuse of drugs, unnecessary expensive drugs and overuse of analgesics and injections are the most common problems of irrational use by health care providers and consumers [7]. These unnecessary prescriptions often results in aggravated side effects and drug interactions leading to chronic renal failure, there is need for continue medical education to ensure appropriate use of these drugs
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