Himani Gupta1, Seema Gupta2, Vivek Mahajan3, Nusrat Kareem Bhat4, Suman Kumar Kotwal5
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.
