PURPOSE Correct drug prescription in the elderly is a difficult task that requires careful survey of the current pharmacological therapies. In this article, we reviewed the drug prescriptions provided to 860 persons aged 65 years or over, residing in a small city of Lombardy, Italy. METHODS Subjects were recruited from a local nursing home, the Pavia and Vigevano Neuropsychological Center for...

Compare the rationality of prescriptions between private practitioners and physicians of a tertiary care hospital. A prospective study was done by reviewing 150 prescriptions each of private practitioners and physicians of a tertiary care hospital over a period of 2 months. The rationality assessment was done using the method adopted by Gajjar. Collected data entered and analyzed using Microsof...

BACKGROUND Errors in consuming drugs are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, besides an impact on the already overburdened health-care system. Misunderstanding drug labels and prescriptions plays an important role in contributing to adverse drug events. OBJECTIVE To evaluate abilities to understand prescriptions and drug labels among patients attending tertiary care hospital ...

Hypertension is the commonest non-communicable disease in Nigeria with a prevalence of about 20-25 per cent in adult Nigerians. This research work examined generic drug substitution and its impact on drug adherence among hypertensive patients attending the Consultant Out-Patient Department of Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria. Self-report adherence, personal interview, structured questi...

BACKGROUND Drugs are the most important treatment option for most diseases, and the majority of medical consultations result in a prescription. Women and men receive different drug prescriptions and differ in therapeutic response to pharmacological therapy. This disparity is due to biological factors (sex differences) or/and behavior, lifestyle and life experience (gender differences). Sex diff...

BACKGROUND The irrational use of drugs was a global problem, especially in developing countries. However, there are no studies available on irrational use of drugs in rural Western China. OBJECTIVE To assess the drug prescribing patterns using World Health Organization Drug Use Indicators at village health clinics in rural areas of Western China. METHODS A total of 20 125 prescriptions were...

CONTEXT Narcotics are frequently prescribed in the Emergency Department (ED) and are increasingly abused. Prescription monitoring programs affect prescribing by Emergency Physicians (EPs), yet little is known on how EPs interpret prescription records. OBJECTIVE To assess how EPs interpret prescription narcotic history for patients in the ED with painful conditions. DESIGN/MAIN Outcome Measure...

Rational prescribing increases the quality of health care and patient outcomes. In this study, the quality of drug prescription in specialist physicians in Isfahan province of Iran was assessed for evaluating the rational use of drugs and improving the therapeutic outcomes.This retrospective survey was conducted on a total of 7999530 prescriptions from all general and specialist physicians. The...

Concomitant use of several drugs by ICU( Intensive Care Unit) patients is often unavoidable. In these patients, pharmacokinetic drug interactions are very likely. The current study was designed to evaluate these interactions in patients hospitalized in an ICU of a teaching hospital in Tehran, Iran. A questionnaire was designed and used to collect study data. The study was done in the ICU of a t...