STUDY TO KNOW PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF DRUGS USED FOR CONTROL OF HYPERTENSION IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN PAKISTAN

Background: Hypertension has been the most common diseases that are chronic in nature and lead to high morbidity. To improve the patient survival, the early and efficient management of essential hypertension is needed, also to prevent complications and the established anti-hypertensives have paramount importance. Objective of the study is to prescribe anti-hypertensive drugs and know about patterns in a tertiay care hospital of lahoreMethods: A cross-sectional observational study was undertaken and 205 patients suffering from primary hypertension were handed out prescriptions in the Medicine Department Of Jinnah Hospital Lahore. All patients visited OPD and treated with at least one hypertensive drugs were included in the study irrespective of age and sex. Data was obtained from the patients by scrutinizing the out patients regarding the demographic profile and details pertaining to the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs used for the treatment of hypertension.Results: In total 205 prescriptions were analysed within the study period. 131 (63.9%) of the patients were male and 74 (36.1%) female patients were included in the study. Most patients went in the age group of 50-59 years, which were 60 (29.3%) and 145 (70.7%) patients had a precious family history, (61.5%) of the patients were affected with stage-I hypertension, (56.1%) had a normal BMI. The results revealed that, 86 (41.9%) patients had dual therapy followed by monotherapy in the 59 (28.7%) of patients.Conclusions: The present study concludes that calcium channel blockers are the most frequently prescribed class of drugs for hypertension alone and diuretics are the most commonly used class of drugs in combination. However, further studies are necessary to set up a rationale or pattern for the choice of medication; taking into consideration the demographic factors involved in the prevalence of hypertensio