ASSESSMENT OF DRUG USE PATTERN AMONG PATIENTS OF OVERACTIVE BLADDER AT A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY .

Introduction: Overactive bladder (OAB) is a serious illness that affects both men and women and becomes more common with age. A large fraction of this population has comorbidities and takes many medicines. To encourage rational drug use in this population the World Health Organization's drug use indicators appear to be an important tool to assess drug use trends. Objectives: This study was conducted to assess medication utilization patterns in patients with OAB attending the Urology OPD. Materials & Methods: During November –December 2022 this cross-sectional observational research was conducted. The study comprised 51 patients aged 18–60 of both genders. Patients had Overactive Bladder symptoms. The WHO prescription indicators were used to examine these patients' data. Findings: The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was found to be 3.66 (optimal value 1.6–1.8). An antibiotic was found to be prescribed in 68.63% of encounters (optimal value 20.0–26.8%). The most commonly prescribed form of antibiotic was Ciprofloxacin. 100% of drugs were prescribed by their Generic name. None (0%) of the encounters prescribed an injection. 50.27% of drugs were prescribed from the Essential Drug List (EDL). 29 (74.36%) patients received combination therapy of Tamsulosin + Dutasteride due to BPH. All the study subjects were treated with Beta-3 Agonist Mirabegron for OAB symptoms. Conclusion: Based on this study's findings, polypharmacy, the prescribing practices for antibiotics, deviates from the WHO-recommended standard. Since antibiotics are frequently overused and expensive, their use must be appropriately monitored. In contrast, generic prescribing and EDL prescribing were not identified as problematic in this study. Further, long-term studies are required to detect irrational use of antibiotics among the study subjects