Abstract

A STUDY ON PRESCRIBING PATTERN IN THE MANAGEMENT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS AND RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ORTHOPAEDICS

Sita Gurung*, Shyam Babu, Sandra Sabu, Riya Mariam Shibu, Rihanna Begum, Basavaraj K. Nanjwade

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study the recent trend of prescribing patterns of the drugs that are used in the management and treatment of arthritis at the study site and to obtain the information on demographic characteristics of the patients selected for analysis. METHODOLOGY: The prospective observational study was carried out for a period of 6 months among inpatients and outpatients in the Orthopedics department. A total of 150 cases were collected in which patients of both the sex and of above 18 years with or without co morbidities were included. Patients who are below 18 years, pregnant and lactating women were excluded from the study. The gender, age, class of the drugs, ROA, different classes of: NSAIDS, DMARDS, corticosteroids, Analgesics; comorbidities, signs and symptoms drug therapy, risk factors and disease distribution pattern were reported. RESULTS: Out of 150 arthritis cases, 82(54.6%) were Males and 68 (45.33%) were Females. Whereas, the gender distribution in the OA patients shows that out of 114 patients 75(65.78%) patients were males and 39(34.21%) patients were females. Whereas the gender distribution of RA patients shows that out of 36 patients, 29(80.5%) were females and 7(19.4%) patients were male. The results revealed that a total of 318 drugs were prescribed. Out of which, Diclofenac was most prescribed [70(32.25%)] followed by Tramadol [50(23.04%)] in OA, the results also revealed that Hydroxychloroquine [25 (24.75%)] was most prescribed followed by Diclofenac [13(12.87%)] in RA. CONCLUSION: The present study shows that DMARDS are still the preferred treatment of RA. Diclofenac was the most preferred drug in case of OA. In most of our prescriptions we found out the irrational use of NSAIDs that result in gastric irritation. Therefore one should take proper interventions to change such irrational prescribing trends. The ACR guidelines suggest the use of simple analgesic like paracetamol in the relief of mild-to moderate joint pain, but our study reveals that there was a limited use of PCT in the management of OA, instead of that diclofenac was the first preferred drug by the orthopaedicians.

Keywords: Prescribing pattern, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, DMARDS.