Study on Steroid Utilization Patterns in General Medicine Department

Abstract

Background: Corticosteroids are of great value in treating a wide spectrum of inflammatory conditions as they provide rapid symptomatic relief, especially in the short term. These highly efficacious drugs are mostly used for the treatment of various autoimmune, respiratory, and dermatological conditions. The frequent use of steroids for their palliative effects often leads to its misuse in medicine practice. Periodic monitoring of the drug utilization pattern is one of the methods to analyse the rationality of drug use and has been an effective tool to constitute guidelines for improving the utilization pattern. Aim and objectives: to study the prescribing patterns of steroids in general medicine department, to study the prescribing and administration related factors. Methodology: A prospective observational study was carried out in 324 In-patients from the general medicine department of the hospital during eight months period and subjected to statistical analysis. Results: Out of 324 patients, 207 (63.9%) were males, and 117 (36.1%) were females. More than half of the study population (53.1 %) belonged to the elderly age group of 51-70 years. Social habits of the patients revealed that 105 patients were smokers, 149 patients consumed alcohol. 154 (47.5%) of the patients were teetotallers and non-smokers. Almost 38.8% of reasons were related to respiratory tract infection for which steroid prescription was found to be common. Out of 324 cases common morbidities were COPD (34.9%), asthma(17.0%), broncho pneumonia (16.0%), other pulmonary diseases (8.6%). Other reasons included severe allergic reactions (7.7%), allergic conditions (7.4%), tuberculosis (4.9), dermatological Diseases (2.5%) and septic shock (0.9%), etc. budesonide was the most prescribed steroidal drug for 214 (66%) patients followed by hydrocortisone 56 (17.30%), prednisolone 29 (9%) and so on. Conclusion: It may be concluded that clinical pharmacist can play an important role in the prescription audit and safety assessment of steroid medications in hospital settings, including corticosteroids. The commonly used corticosteroids were budesonide and frequently used in respiratory diseases like COPD and Asthma.