Original Articles
Samiksha Agarwal and Komal Sha
Abstract
The study evaluates prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in patients of hypertension visiting hospital at Jaipur, Rajasthan. Prescriptions of hypertensive patients with or without comorbidities attending various outpatient departments were selected randomly. Prescriptions of pregnant women and children below 18 years of age were excluded. Patient’s demographics, antihypertensive drugs prescribed and comorbid conditions were entered in a specially designed proforma. A total of 227 prescriptions were monitored of which 134 were males and 93 were females divided in 20-89 year age groups. Majority of hypertensive cases were in 50-59 years for males and 40-49 years for females. Of total, 67.84% were treated with dual therapy, 32.15% with monotherapy and only 12.33% were treated with multiple therapy. As monotherapy angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were the most commonly (52.05%) prescribed of which losartan alone contributed (97.43%). In dual therapy, combination of losartan & hydrochlorthiazide was given to majority of patients of essential HTN. Diuretics despite being recommended as first line drug by JNC VII failed to be leading agent as monotherapy.