Prescription indicators help to establish a profile of the therapeutic practice in a region or health care facility, by using data such as: average number of pharmaceuticals per prescription, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage prescribed drugs enrolled at essential drugs list, percentage of antibiotics prescribed, percentage of prescribed injectables. Therefore, the objective was to review published papers that addressed prescription indicators. Authors found usually more than 02 pharmaceuticals per prescription. For drugs prescribed by generic name, figures were lower than expected. The results show that more than 70% of the prescribed drugs are at Brazilian essential drugs list. Most of the papers present a very high rate of antibiotics, above to maximum level recommended (20%). About injectable pharmaceutical dosage form, the results were favorable, with the exception of 01 author who found values above 10%.