BACKGROUND: Pregnancy is a special physiological condition, where drug treatment presents a special concern. AIMS: To evaluate the drug utilization pattern during pregnancy and to evaluate the effect of the educational and economic status on it.. DESIGN: The retrospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: The postgraduate Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of a medical college. and the antenatal clinic of the institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical students filled 405 questionnaires after interviewing pregnant women (243 primigravida and 152 multigravida). All the collected questionnaires were analysed for various study parameters. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Inter-group comparison was done using chi-square test. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 700, 1086 and 686 drugs, with an average of 1.73, 2.89 and 2.49 drugs per pregnant women, were used during first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, respectively. A majority of the drugs used, were from category-A, followed by category-B and category-D. However, category C and X drugs constituted 2.90 (20) and 5.71% (40) of drugs used during the third trimester and first trimester, respectively. Herbal/ homeopathic drugs constituted 6.42 (45), 3.68 (40) and 1.46% (10) of the drugs used in the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, respectively (P=649). 33.33% (135) women believed that drug use during pregnancy is dangerous to both mother and child and 37.03% (150) believed that drugs are dangerous throughout pregnancy. 55.55% (225) females advocated the use of iron/folic acid during pregnancy. 24.69% (100) of women had knowledge about barrier contraceptives. Self-medication and homeopathic/ herbal drugs use was found more in graduates than in undergraduates; as well as, it was more in the higher socioeconomic group than the lower socioeconomic group. CONCLUSION: There is a need to educate and counsel women of child-bearing age, regarding the advantages and disadvantages of drug use during pregnancies, with special reference to alternative therapies and self-medication.
(Wardha) for allowing us to do biochemical investigations in the biochemistry department. We also extend our sincere thanks to the staff for their full cooperation and technical assistance. The authors also wish to acknowledge the central drug store, M.G.I.M.S, Sevagram for providing chemicals.
killer, was used to reduce the mortality rate among heart attack victims; the drug mitomycin, approved for the treatment of gastric and pancreatic cancers, has been found to be useful in the treatment of lung, bladder, breast and cervical cancers, as well as in certain forms of leukemia; trimethoprim, a drug approved to treat pneumonia, has been proved useful as an AIDS management. [4] Moreover, discovering new uses for a new drug that does not work out for its intended use may be another aspect of utilizing the researches and is a valuable strategy because approximately 90% of experimental drugs in the industry fail. In fact, many pharmaceutical companies routinely follow this. The trials of experimental chemotherapy drug pemetrexed were halted following the death of some patients. However, now it is an approved treatment for mesothelioma and is under FDA consideration as a treatment for lung cancer. Pfizer Inc. originally developed the impotence drug sildenafil (viagra) to treat angina. Raloxifene, used for osteoporosis, was a failed contraceptive. Atomoxetine, now used for attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder failed as an antidepressant. [5] The tenacious effort to develop new and specific agents to treat HIV infection is currently accompanied by a reconsideration of existing drugs on the basis of their known or putative effects on the retroviral life cycle and/or the tuning of immune mechanisms. [2] Owing to the limitations with which the scientists can predict the efficacy in humans, medicines introduced for one disease state have subsequently been observed to be of value in unrelated diseases. [6] In many instances, however serendipity plays an important role in the identification of such new uses for the old drugs. The accidental ABSTRACT Introducing a new drug to the market now costs an average of US$ 897 million and is a time consuming process. Discovering new uses for the old drugs offers the advantage of providing time tested drugs for the benefit of the patients. Serendipity plays an important role in this. This therapeutic option may provide cost effective treatment, especially for the developing countries with limited resources. This article focuses on the new potential uses of some common drugs. However, these options need to be pursued by more researches so that the potential benefits could be passed on to the patients.
Ujala Verma, Dr. Boola Choudhary, Prof. Praveen Choudhary
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.