Drug utilization pattern and adverse drug reactions in patients on antidepressants

Background: Depression is the most common mental illness, it is on the rise globally, and when patients do not follow prescribed antidepressant regimen or discontinue the therapy, it results in suboptimal treatment, relapse rate, and poor quality of life. Aims and Objectives: The present study is designed to study the drug utilization pattern observed in patients receiving antidepressants in the psychiatry department and to study adverse drug reactions (ADR) observed in patients receiving antidepressants. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the psychiatry department of BIMS hospital, Belagavi. 598 prescriptions with antidepressants were collected in a specially designed pro forma containing demographic, disease, and drug data. Moreover, during their follow–up, ADRs if any were noted. The data were analyzed statistically and the results were expressed as numbers and percentage. Results: A total of 598 patients were analyzed. Among these, 57.86% were male and 42.13% were female. Most commonly affected age group and those who received maximum of the antidepressants were between 41 and 60 years. Fluoxetine (48.32%) was the most prescribed antidepressant. The total number of drugs prescribed was 957, with the average number of drugs per prescription being 1.60. In our study, 75.65% of drugs were prescribed by their generic name and the remaining 24.35% were brand names. Conclusions: There is a need for drug utilization studies to encourage rational and appropriate use of drugs. Moreover, there is a growing concern to monitor and analyze the ADRs or any drug interactions to antidepressant drug pattern use. In this study, the use of antidepressants in patients was found to be appropriate.