Drug utilization study and adverse drug monitoring of antidepressant drugs in a tertiary care hospital of Bihar

Abstract

Background: Depressive disorders are amongst the most prevailing causes of morbidity and disability in the Indian population. Choosing suitable antidepressants for a particular patient is an imperative decision. 
Aim: To study the drug utilization of antidepressantdrugs and their adverse drug reaction in the department of psychiatry of a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and Methods : It was an observational, prospective study conducted for a duration of 18 months, i.e., from February 2018 to July 2019. The first six months were for recruitment of patients and 12 months were for follow up and data compilation. The prescriptions of every alternate patient were collected on a twice-weekly basis.
Results: In our study, 21–30 years of age group accounted for majority (31.98%) of all depressive disorders. Males (52.28%) were found to be more affected than females. SSRIs (73.26%) were most frequently prescribed, followed by TCA (20%) and SNRI (6.33%). The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.49. The most commonly reported ADR was insomnia (21.23%). ADRs were more commonly found with nortriptyline; a tricyclic antidepressant drug. PDD/DDD values of most of the drugs were close to one.
Conclusions: Through this study, we found that SSRIs were the most commonly prescribed group of antidepressants because of their better efficacy, safety, tolerability, and fewer side effects as compared to TCAs. PDD/DDD ratio signifies that the drugs were neither under-utilized nor over-utilized. Since no prescription had more than five drugs; we can say that polypharmacy was avoided.