Drug Prescription Pattern in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Purpose: To evaluate the prescribing pattern of clinicians in the general outpatient unit of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano (AKTH),. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective study conducted using 500 prescriptions made at the general outpatient unit of AKTH between April and July 2009. Results: A total of 497 prescriptions were successfully analyzed. The average number of drugs per encounter in the facility was 3.04. Generic prescribing was low at 42.7 % while antibiotic prescription was high at 34.4 %. Injections were prescribed in 4 % of encounters while 36.2, 19.1, 25.8 and 1 % of encounters had analgesics, antimalarials, antihypertensives and anxiolytics prescribed, respectively. Vitamins were prescribed in 9.7 % of encounters. Conclusion: Polypharmacy, low rate of generic prescriptions and overuse of antibiotics still remain a problem in health care facilities in Nigeria.. This calls for sustained interventional strategies and periodic audit at all levels of health care to avoid the negative consequences of inappropriate prescriptions.