A STUDY OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS IN DERMATOLOGY OUTPATIENT (OPD) OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
A prospective cross-sectional study was done for 5 months (June - October 2011) in the dermatology outpatient department of SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Center, SRM university, Tamil Nadu to evaluate the drug utilization pattern of antifungal drugs. The prescription data of 100 patients with fungal infections of the skin was analyzed in this study. 72% of the patients presented with a single fungal lesion and 28% with fungal infections in multiple regions. The patients were predominantly (85%) treated with a combination of an oral along with a topical antifungal drug at an average of 2.32 drugs per patient. Imidazoles were the most commonly prescribed group of antifungal drugs (78%) followed by triazoles (63%), allylamines (40%) and antibiotics (4%). Fluconazole was noted to be the predominantly prescribed oral antifungal agent in the treatment of superficial fungal infections. In the topical agents eberconazole (45%) and clotrimazole (31%) were the primarily prescribed drugs. There were no reports of any severe adverse drug reactions or drug interactions during the study.