Background:Usually, surgical management cannot be completed without the use of antimicrobial and analgesic drugs. Irrational prescription may lead to severe postoperative complications.Aim:The objective of this study was to evaluate the prescription trend in the surgery department of a tribal district hospital so as to determine the extent of rational use of medicines.Materials and Methods:It was a retrospective study in which 50 cases were selected randomly. Case records were analyzed for prescription trend. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and values were presented descriptively.Results:Most of the cases were between the age group of 21 and 40 years, 18 cases (36%). Commonest cause of hospitalization was renal calculi (10 (20%)) followed by acute abdomen and abscess (6, (12%)). Total of 255 numbers of drugs were used with an average of 5.1 drugs per patient. Most preferred route was intravenous route (174 drugs, 68.2%). Antimicrobial was the most common (97 (38.0%)) group of drugs followed by analgesic/antipyretics (50 (19.6%)). Among antimicrobials, ciprofloxacin (22 (22.7%)) was the most common drug followed by metronidazole (21 (18.5%)). All the cases were managed by empirical treatment. Two different antimicrobials were prescribed to 20 (40%) of cases. Dosage of 83 (32.6%) drugs was inappropriate while frequency was inappropriate in 26 (10.2%) cases.Conclusion:Urgent steps like specific guidelines, training, and monitoring of drugs use are needed to correct some irrational approaches.

Background:Today, many antidepressants are available, but they often cause adverse effects, particularly psychomotor and cognitive. It leads to patient maladjustment and may impair psychomotor performance. Fluvoxamine is a newer antidepressant and hence the present study was planned to investigate its effect on psychomotor functions and compare with nortriptyline and record their adverse reactions.Materials and Methods:A total of 26 healthy volunteers were included in this double-blind, placebocontrolled, crossover study. Single oral doses of fluvoxamine 50 mg, nortriptyline 50 mg and placebo were administered following a Latin square design. The objective parameters-six digit cancellation test, digit symbol substitution test, critical flicker fusion test, arithmetic ability test, hand steadiness test and subjective parameters such as visual analogue scale 1, 2, 3 were tested at 0, 2 and 4 h. The side-effects were also investigated.Results:Nortriptyline impaired all subjective and objective psychomotor functions while fluvoxamine did not show any significant effect on objective tests. However, on subjective parameters, there was a significant effect. The side-effects observed were dryness of mouthwith the nortriptyline and nausea and headache with fluvoxamine.Conclusion:Fluvoxamine is a better antidepressant drug in comparison with nortriptyline as it causes a less impairment of psychomotor functions.

Background: Use of irrational and unnecessary antimicrobials remains common in the developing countries. The present study was conducted to evaluate the use of antimicrobial agents in the tribal district hospital of Andhra Pradesh India. Methods: In this retrospective study, 200 hospitalized cases from medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics departments were randomly selected. Results: Most common diagnosis was febrile illness (15%) followed by gastroenteritis (10%) and malaria (8%). Antimicrobials were used in 57% cases. All the cases were managed by empirical treatment. Cefixime (40%) was the most common antimicrobial followed by ampicillin (32.50%), metronidazole (30%) and ciprofloxacin (26.50%). Use of antimicrobial monotherapy (41.67%) and 2 drug therapy (36.46%) was common. Conclusion: Empirical use of higher antimicrobial agents is routine and cheap antimicrobials like ampicillin are still most useful drugs in the region. There is a need of specific essential drug list for the region. [Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol 2013; 2(5.000): 567-570

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