THE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF ANTIPLATELET DRUGS ON HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS: PRESCRIPTION ANALYSIS STUDY

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to assess the prescribing errors inhypertensive outpatients taking Antiplatelet drugswith other drugs and consequently the frequency and pattern of potential drug-drug interactions. A retrospective study was conductedfrom December 2017- May 2018.The data analysis was carried out by SPSS. Potential drug-drug interactions were determined by Micromedex 2. Severity of errors was evaluated according to NCCMERP (National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention). In current study 1142 medication errors (MEs) were trailed in 300 prescriptions. The utmost ubiquitous ME was the patient’s weight not mentioned in (95.3%) prescriptions continued by drug-drug interactions (95%). Diagnosis was missing in (73.3%) prescriptions. The average number of drugs per encounter was 5.64. According to NCCMERP highest number of the prescriptions (n=193, 64.33%) were fall in category D, followed by category C and I. Out of 300 prescriptions, majority of thedrug-druginteractions (88.33%) were moderate, (56%) minor andmajor drug-drug interactions were present in (11%) prescriptions. The most common drugs responsible for DDIs were Acetyl salicylic acid followed by Atenolol. The most commonly interacting pairs were Acetyl salicylic acid-Clopidogrel168(56%) followed by Acetyl salicylic acidCaptopril68(22.66%) and Acetyl salicylic acid-Nitroglycerine38(12.66).The study indicates the serious deficient of prescription writing skills among the doctors and their outcomes are responsible to promote the irrational use of drugs, high chances of drug-drug interactions and low patient compliance.

Keywords: Prescribing errors, Drug-drug interaction, Micromedex, NCCMERP, Hypertensive, Antiplatelet