Caracterización del patrón de prescripción de carbamazepina: provincias seleccionadas de Cuba, a？o 2005

with the objective of characterizing the prescription of carbamazepine, an observational study of use of drugs under prescription-indication was made, with elements of therapeutic scheme and factors that conditioned the prescription in april, 2005. information was gathered from medical certificates of patients under carbamazepine treatment, which were kept in the main municipal drugstores of 6 cuban provinces that have been previously selected according to expert criteria. the analyzed variables were diagnosis, age, sex, daily dose, pharmaceuticals affecting the action of carbamazepine, medical specialty issuing the certificate and level of care. epilepsy is the main cause for prescription of this drug (61,3%). the recommended dose was written in 99,6% of medical certificates. few patients took drugs that affected carbamazepine metabolism. the certificates were mainly given by family physicians (62%), neurologists (13%) and psychiatrists (13%) and they were issued at primary health care level (7%). generally speaking, the prescription pattern is in line with the recommendations made by the medical literature