Background: Prescription audit is one of the methods to assess drug utilization and rationality of prescribing. Irrational prescribing is a worldwide problem. It is due to the faulty prescribing habits, lack of training amongst health care personnel, pressure from the pharmaceutical companies, and a lot of other reasons. Methods: The study was conducted by noting the details of patients admitted during 3 months from April to June 2015 in the Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital, Jamnagar. Prescriptions were collected from the inpatients of medicine, surgery, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedic randomly and analyzed according to the WHO core prescribing indicators. Results: Three hundred six prescriptions were analysed in which 1986 drugs were prescribed. Mean number of drugs per prescription was 6.49%. In our study, 63.34% drugs were prescribed by generic names and drugs on NLEM were 73.01%. Dosage forms used were mostly oral (69.54%). Infectious and parasitic diseases were the most common illnesses (16.01%) followed by diseases of respiratory system. The most common drug groups prescribed were GIT, antimicrobials, antihistaminics, multivitamins and minerals. The incidence of poly-pharmacy was also common with maximum number of prescriptions (26.8%) having 5 drugs per prescription. Conclusion: Prescription audit is an important measure to improve the quality of care afforded by the hospitals. Data generated on morbidity pattern coupled with current practices of treatment of these diseases provides an objective basis for preparing an NLEM. By this data we conclude that poly-pharmacy is quite common. Most of drugs were prescribed according to the NLEM 2011.

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Aims: The present study was carried out to describe the patterns of prescription and drug use in Ophthalmology outpatients at GG hospital, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. Methods: Total of 600 patients were included during 3 months duration and average number of drugs per encounter, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage of encounters with antibiotics prescribed, percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed, percentage of drugs prescribed from the WHO Essential Drug List 2015, number of fixed dose combinations prescribed and percentage of antimicrobial agents prescribed were analyzed. Results: Prescription analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.20%. Eye drops were the most commonly prescribed (66.8%) dosage form, followed by ointment (18.4%), capsules (8.66%) and tablets (6%). Dosage forms were recorded in 99.2% drugs, information about the frequency of drug administration was present in 96% of the drugs and duration of therapy was recorded in 84.7% of the drugs prescribed. The drug classes that were used most frequently were Antibiotics (45%), Ocular lubricants (24.7%), NSAIDS (17.4%) and Anti-allergy medications (8.1%). Conclusion: Common prescription errors were minimum. However polypharmacy was common.

Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS) is an acute life-threatening mucocutaneous reaction, characterized by extensive necrosis and detachment of the epidermis from the skin. The overall incidence of SJS is seen in five cases per million people per year. SJS is typically caused by drugs and is a kind of idiosyncratic reaction. Adverse drug reactions such an SJS have a remarkable effect on patient's safety issues. We encountered nine cases of antiepileptic drug (AED)-induced SJS, specifically with carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, and phenytoin. To manage the reaction, the clinician withdrew the drug in all 8 cases, and in 1 case, the patient was shifted to valproate and symptomatic treatment was provided. There is still a controversy whether or not all AEDs can cause SJS. Recent studies have investigated the role of genetic factors - HLAB*502 allele in the development of AED-induced SJS in patients of Asian ancestry.