A Study Of Drugs Being Prescribed To The Patients Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Attending The Rheumatology Outpatient Department In A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital: A Prospective Observational Study

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION - Drug utilization studies assess appropriateness of pharmacotherapy. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, which, if untreated, may result in degradation of joints. OBJECTIVE - To evaluate the prescribed drugs according to WHO drug use indicators. METHODS - Data collected included Demographics, details of medications prescribed for RAand other co-morbidities. RESULTS – Average no of drugs per prescription were 4.98 ± 1.21. Methotrexate was prescribed to every patient. Percentage of patients prescribed Single DMARD, Two DMARDS and Three DMARDS were 10%, 48% and 42% respectively. 99.38% and 90.68% of the Drugs for RA were prescribed from NLEM 2015 and 20th WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (March 2017) respectively.75.9% drugs were prescribed by Generic name. CONCLUSION –The standard treatment guidelines for treatment of RAare followed. Drugs were mostly prescribed from the Essential drug lists. Majority of the drugs have been prescribed by generic names.