The timely article by Verdoux & Begaud ́ hopefully begins to redress the imbalance between randomised controlled trials and other ways of evaluating drug treatments. I would like to present further evidence for the ‘gap between guidelines and utilisation . . . for psychotropic medications’ (Verdoux & Begaud, 2004). ́ Using the Drug Report of the German Public Health Insurance (Schwabe & Pfaffrath...

BACKGROUND Many common drugs have not been licensed for use in children. METHODS This study evaluated the incidence of unlicensed and off-label prescriptions at the Department of Pediatrics during a period of six months. A total of 8,559 prescriptions for 4,282 children were processed. RESULTS Off-label and unlicensed prescriptions were found in 9.01% and 1.26% of all prescriptions, respect...

In the present study out of total 200 prescriptions of POAG (primary open angle glaucoma) studied 66% were found to be of monotherapy including timolol, brimonidine, pilocarpine, betaxolol, levobunolol, latanoprost and apraclonidine in 30%, 15 %, 6%, 8% , 4%, 1% and 2% of the prescriptions respectively and 34% were found to be of polypharmacy with timolol+pilocarpine, timolol+acetazolamide, tim...

BACKGROUND In Mexico, inappropriate prescription of drugs with potential interactions causing serious risks to patient health has been little studied. Work in this area has focused mainly on hospitalized patients, with only specific drug combinations analyzed; moreover, the studies have not produced conclusive results. In the present study, we determined the frequency of potential drug-drug and...

Antibiotic resistance, a major negative consequence of antibiotic overuse, is an important problem worldwide. Various means have been used to control antibiotic usage including the use of an antibiotic order form (AOF), restricted antibiotic formularies and provision of educational information. The present study was designed to evaluate the use of antimicrobials in a 1,000-bed university hospit...