Comparison of drug utilization of most commonly used drugs in Poland and Czech Republic.

Utilization of drugs from the following groups: antibacterial, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory tract diseases in Poland and Czech Republic was analyzed. The most commonly sold drugs were among antibacterial drugs, viz., doxycycline (4.5DDD/1000 inh./day in Poland; 3.3 in Czech Republic), co-trimoxazole (Poland-2.9; Czech Republic 2.5), ampicilline and amoxicilline; among gastrointestinal drugs, ascorbic acid (Poland 42.2; Czech Republic 59.3), among respiratory drugs, sodium cromoglicate in Poland and bromhexine in Czech Republic, and among cardiovascular drugs, enalapril in Poland and diuretics with potasium sparing drug in Czech Republic. In general, the leading drugs in Poland and Czech Republic, were the same. All drugs with highest utilization were on the Essential Drug List. Some differences in drug utilization between these two countries could result from the prevalence of particular diseases in each population and physician's prescribing patterns.

Changes in the use of antibacterial drugs in the countries of central and eastern Europe.

Use of systemic antibacterial drugs in the countries of central and eastern Europe (CCEE) has been studied using the defined daily doses (DDD) methodology. For the comparison, national wholesale data from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania for the years 1989 and 1992 were used, i.e. for the years before and after the rapid sociopolitical changes in these countries. Substantial differences in the patterns of antibacterial drug use between countries as geographically and economically similar as the CCEE were observed. The general sales of antibiotics varied almost twofold among the CCEE and had decreased in most of the CCEE during the study period. The proportion of tetracyclines in the sales of 1992 ranged from 10% in Slovenia to 49% in Estonia, and that of broad-spectrum penicillins from 6% in Estonia to 40% in Slovenia. The use of narrow-spectrum penicillins varied within the range of 4% in Bulgaria to 38% in Slovakia, and had decreased during the study years in all countries. Aminoglycosides accounted for 5-12% of all antibacterials in Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia in the study period, and these countries, with the exception of Slovakia, also had a high consumption of chloramphenicol. In 1992, by far the most popular antiinfectives in the CCEE were doxycycline, ampicillin and co-trimoxazole, which ranked among the top ten drugs in all countries studied.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)