Evaluation of Recent Prescription Pattern in Cornea Clinic of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Developing Country's Perspective

Drug utilization studies offer an excellent platform to ascertain the role of drugs because the periodic monitoring of prescribing pattern helps in advancement of rational use of drugs. The aim of drug utilization research is to encourage the rational use of drugs by analyzing the drug use pattern, generating early signs of irrational drug use, and suggesting intervention to improved drug usage. In recent times, drug utilization research is an essential part of pharmacoepidemiology because it describes the extent, nature, and determinants of drug exposure.[1] The WHO defined drug utilization research as “the marketing, distribution, prescription, and use of drugs in a society, with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social and economic consequences.”[2] A wide spectrum of diseases come under the term corneal disorders including blepharitis, meibomitis, dryness in eyes, and corneal ulcers, and hence, various therapeutic agents including antibacterial, antifungals, antivirals, steroids, and antiallergic are used in the management of corneal disorders.[3] Wide variability in the prescribing trends of drugs, variable adverse event profiles among different brands of the same drug, and the ever-increasing prices of drugs are some prime examples of the need for such drug utilization studies. The plethora of literature is available for the utilization patterns of systemically used drugs, while the literature for topical drugs is patchy at best. Since the topical drugs are of prime usage in eye-related diseases, the studies of such importance will help identify the rationale of topical drugs and, hence, helps in promoting better drug usage when minimizing the occurrence of untoward adverse effects.[4] Therefore, the present study evaluated the prescribing pattern practices in the cornea clinic of a tertiary care hospital.