Assessment of Prescribing Pattern and Appropriateness of Steroids Prescribed In A Private Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Steroids are widely prescribed in modern medicine, because steroid hormones are crucial for proper functioning of the body. Steroid prolonged use is associated with serious AEs. Hence this study was carried out to assess the prescribing pattern and appropriateness of steroids. A prospective observational study was conducted to analyze for the pattern of prescribed steroids and also analyzed to that of the recommended therapeutic guidelines. Out of 1084, 14.5% (157) were steroid therapy. Maximum use of steroids was prescribed for patients above 50 years of age. Almost 38.8% of reasons were related to RTI. The average number of drugs prescribed for each prescription was 9.82±3.7.  The drugs prescribed in the study population includes 13.29% of steroids and 54.1% were commonly given through nebulization at the time of admission and tablets was most common dosage form at the time of discharge. 2.5±8.23 average numbers of drug interactions, 21.66% had moderate drug interactions involving steroids. There were 4 adverse drug reactions observed and none of the steroids were involved in precipitating the ADRs.  As per therapeutic guidelines, 38.85% of steroids were inappropriately prescribed and Rs. 495±39.49 was the average cost increased (drugs cost alone) for patients for whom the steroids were inappropriately prescribed. This study may be concluded that use of therapeutic guidelines while prescribing corticosteroids will benefit the patients because of lesser side effects, and it also may reduce the cost of treatment and improve therapeutic outcome.