Prescription pattern of analgesics in outpatient department in a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India

Background: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience which is associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in such terms. NSAIDs are most commonly prescribed drugs for the treatment of pain and inflammation and is most commonly prescribed drug around the world. NSAIDs are also most commonly used drug over the counter. Present study was done to evaluate the prescription pattern of analgesics and to assess the rational use of conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, and opioid analgesics.Methods: Present study was Cross sectional study, done at outdoor department of Orthopaedics at T.S. Misra Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow during January 2017 to April 2017 in a pre-designed and pre-tested proforma. Both male and female patients, above the age of 18 years, who were willing to participate in this study were enrolled. Samples of 253 prescriptions were screened randomly and verbal informed consent was taken. Data were analysed using MS Excel 2007 and summarized as counts and percentages. Statistical analysis was not done as it was a descriptive study.Results: Most commonly prescribed analgesics were non-selective NSAIDs followed by selective COX-2 inhibitors. Most commonly prescribed FDCs combination was diclofenac with paracetamol.Conclusions: This study shows that diclofenac is the most frequently prescribed analgesic in orthopaedics OPD at this hospital. The extensive use of irrational FDCs must be curtailed. We observed in present study that most of the prescriptions were rational. But there are scopes for improvement by introducing appropriate educational intervention for rational prescribing.