Abstract
The objective of the study is to categorize and evaluate the prescription drugs amongst pregnant women in a tertiary care hospital. A prospective observational study was conducted at GSL medical college and hospital, Rajahmundry for a period of 6 months. FDA guidelines were used to study the prescribing patterns of drugs. Among 172 women, average age was 21.2±2.8 years. The majority (62.20%) of the women had completed secondary education. About 22.09% had complained anemia, followed by pain (17.44%), insomnia (6.97%), anxiety (6.97%), hyper emesis (5.23%), pregnancy induced hypertension (4.06%), gestational diabetes (2.32%), urinary tract infection (2.32%), constipation (1.74%), hypothyroidism (1.74%). According to FDA criteria, Category-C (53.11%) was most frequently prescribed, followed by Category-A (15.4%), category-B (9.3%), category-D (2.6%), category-X (0%) and 20.8% drugs prescribed were not classified in FDA guidelines. The overall usage of drugs during pregnancy was found to be high. Early marriage is also a common problem identified in this area. Safety should be established for many supplements that are frequently used in pregnancy. As pregnant women were not included in the clinical trials, data regarding the safe use of drugs in pregnant women were very less. Furthermore, studies have to be carried out in pregnant women that help in classifying the drugs, which assist in safe prescribing pattern.
