Introduction: Drug utilization is the marketing, distribution, prescription and the use of drugs in a society.  The method of prescribing antidepressant drugs have changed worldwide in the last couple of years.¹ Numerous drugs are seen in this class with different  mechanism of action and variable efficacy and safety profile.² Drug utilization studies are important for rational prescribing, as there is  discovery of new drugs and the delayed recognition of their  adverse effects. Depression  requires chronic treatment thus making such studies important in minimizing the medication errors.³

Methods: After getting approval from the instituitional human ethics committee and consent from the subjects, this study was conducted in which 80 prescriptions with one or more antidepressant drug was collected during a period of one year. The patients were followed up after one month and adverse events if any produced by medication were noted and analysed.

Results: Out of 80 prescriptions analysed, 46.25% were males and 53.75% were females. Regarding the morbidity distribution, depressive disorder contributes to 68.75% and adjustment disorder contributes to 8.75% of diagnosis. Based on analysis by WHO/INRUD standard guidelines, the average number of drugs and antidepressant drugs per prescription were 2.7% and 1.01% respectively. The utilization of antidepressant drugs assessed by PDD/DDD ratio is equal to 1 for sertraline and escitalopram while it is less than one for other antidepressants. The adverse effects commonly encountered were weight gain, sedation, dry mouth, diarrhea, insomnia and constipation.

Keywords: Depressive disorder, Adjustment disorder, Other anxiety disorder, Schizoaffective disorder, Obsessive compulsive disorder, Alcohol dependence, International network for rational use of drugs (INRUD).

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Dr A. Hussain

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