Objective: To assess the drug prescription pattern in the department of obstetrics and gynecology At A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Bangalore, India.

Methodology: A prospective observational study on Drug Utilization pattern was done in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of a 950 bedded tertiary care teaching hospital in Bangalore for 6 months. All patients were admitted to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Patients satisfying Inclusion criteria were enrolled after obtaining Informed Consent. Patient data entered into Case Report Form (CRF). Medication orders were observed for Prescription patterns. WHO Prescription indicators will be used to study the number of drugs per encounter, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage of encounters with an antibiotic, percentage of encounters with an injection, percentage of drugs prescribed.

Result: A total of 120 cases were collected. A total of 1004 drugs were prescribed which included 244 (24.30%) minerals and vitamin supplements, 219 (21.81%) Antibiotics, 146 (14.55%) Gastric acid Secretion Inhibitors, 108(10.75%) Analgesics, 35 (3.49%) Antihypertensive drugs, 22 (2.19%)Antifungal drugs, 32 (3.19%) Anti-diabetic drugs, 32 (3.19%) Anti-spasmodic, 41 (4.08%) Antiemetic drugs, 12 (1.19%) Corticosteroids, 16 (1.59%) Anticonvulsant drugs, 97 (9.66%) in the category of “Others”: Anti sceptics, Topical agents, Oxytocic, Antihyperlipidemic drugs, Oral contraceptives, etc. Percentage of Drugs used in different categories were, In our study majority of drugs from Category A (45.405), Category B (35.63%), Category C (16.67%), Category D (2.30%). the average number of drugs per prescription in this study (8.36) is higher than the standard set by WHO (1.6-1.8), percentage of patients prescribed with Injectables is 39.70% this is also high when compared with the range of the standard set by WHO.

Conclusion: The results of our study highlight several areas that need improvement, most importantly there is Polypharmacy was practiced as the average number of drugs (8.36) per prescription when compared with a standard set by WHO. Another area that is Percentage of drugs prescribed by Generic name is also low which also need to improve. Iron, Calcium, and Folic acid were the most frequently prescribed drugs. Overall drug use pattern is rational with few exceptions which were mentioned above. The majority of the drugs were prescribed from the Essential Medicine List and the majority of drugs were prescribed as per FDA Category A the Safest Category during pregnancy.

Keywords: prescription pattern, Obstetrics, Gynecology