Study of prescribing patterns of antihypertensives in South Indian population

Background: Objective of the study is to study the prescribing pattern of drugs used in the management of hypertension.Methods: A prospective study was conducted for the period of 6 months in an out-patient department. All patients of either gender with primary essential hypertensive patients who have been diagnosed with hypertension as per Joint National Committee-VII (JNC-VII) guidelines and patients receiving or prescribed with antihypertensive drugs were included. The collected was analyzed for the demographic profile of the patients and the prescribing pattern of antihypertensives drugs used in the treatment of hypertension.Results: A total of 360 prescriptions were analyzed during the study period, 59% were male and 41% were female. Maximum numbers of the patients were in the age group of 32.2% (50-59) years and 56.73% of the patients were in Stage-I hypertension. The results revealed that, the maximum number of patients underwent dual therapy, followed by 30.24% monotherapy, 13% of patients with triple drug therapy and 8.31% of the patients treated with more than 3 drugs. The results of pharmacotherapy revealed that dual therapy was the most preferred choice of treatment in reducing systolic blood pressure with (25.13%, p<0.0001) Angiotensin receptor-II blocker (ARBs) + β–Blockers than ARBs alone. Whereas in diastolic blood pressure there is a high percentage of reduction was found with (20.24%, p<0.0001) angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) + calcium channel blockers (CCBs) compare to ACEIs used alone.Conclusion: The most common drug classes involved in the study was ARBs 42.24% followed by CCBs 22%. The prescribing patterns of antihypertensive drugs follow the standard treatment as per the algorithm JNC-VII guidelines for hypertensio