Pharmacoepidemiology of antihypertensive drugs in a tertiary care hospital, Madhya Pradesh, India

Aims and Objectives: The aim of study is to determine the frequency and prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in Out Patient Department of a tertiary care hospital and to identify whether the pattern of prescribing is appropriate in accordance with national and international guidelines for pharmacotherapy of hypertension. Methods: This is a prescription-based survey; the prescriptions were collected randomly from OPDs of SGM Hospital in form of Xerox copy after taking the consent, the total 3587 prescriptions were analyzed. Results: In the 3587 prescriptions total 8144 drugs were prescribed; of these only 4.19% (342) drugs were belonging to cardiovascular groups. Amongst the cardiovascular drugs 94.73% (324) were belongs to antihypertensive and 5.26% were to anti-CHF (drugs) groups. 91.35% drugs were prescribed as monotherapy and 8.64% as combination therapy. The CCBs (Amlodipine 83.47%) were the most frequently prescribed (35.49%) antihypertensive followed by ACEIs 25% (Enalapril 60.49%), β-blockers 13.27% (Atenolol 69.76%), AT1 antagonist or ARBs 9.25% (Losartan 80.0%), combination therapy 8.64% (AT+AM = LO+HCTZ 46.42%) and diuretics 8.33% (Hydrochlorothiazide 55.55% 27). However over all prescribing frequency amongst antihypertensive drugs were as follow; Amlodipine (29.63%) ≥ Enalapril (15.12%) ≥ Ramipril (9.87%) ≥ Atenolol ≥ (9.25%) ≥ Losartan (7.40%) hydrochlorothiazide ≥ (4.63%) ≥ Es-amlodipine (4.32%) ≥ AT+AM (4.01%)= LO+HCTZ (4.01%) ≥ Frusemide (3.70%) ≥ Candesartan (1.85%) ≥ Metoprolol (1.54%) and others. Conclusions: Most of antihypertensive in this study were prescribed as monotherapy. CCBs; Amlodipine was most frequently prescribed antihypertensive followed by Enalapril ≥ Ramipril ≥ Atenolol ≥ and Losartan, in combination therapy AT+AM and LO+HCTZ were equally prescribed. The pattern of this study were appears to be in accordance with the national and international guidelines.