This prospective study was planned to find the medication prescribing pattern in children taking outpatient treatment. This study was carried out using 500 prescriptions. Only pre-compounded prescription orders that call for a drug or mixture of drugs supplied by the pharmaceutical company were included in the study. The patients attending private clinics and government hospitals were randomly approached either outside the clinic or at chemist shop with a request to have their prescriptions photocopied. Necessary data were obtained from prescriptions and analyzed for (i) Number of medicines per prescription, (ii) Type of dosage form, (iii) Revisit or follow up pattern, (iv) Use of antibiotics. In the present study, on an average 2.93 medicines were prescribed per patient. It was observed that maximum dosage forms prescribed were of oral route specially drops and syrups. It was also observed that the maximum number of patients did not require revisit as most of the children were suffering from general health problems and very less number of patients required revisit within seven days. Maximum number of prescriptions prescribed contains at least one antibiotic. Thus from this study we found that extensive polypharmacy, over prescribing and increased uses of antibiotics are common errors in prescribing practices.
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