In view of the advancement in drug development and availability of new ocular therapeutics in the discipline of ophthalmology, we attempted to study the drug utilization and describe the prescribing practices of ophthalmologists in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Method. A prospective, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted on patients attending Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology for curative complaints. Prescriptions of 600 patients treated were analyzed by the WHO prescribing indicators and additional indices. Results. Analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 1.49. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 2.35%. Percentage of encounters with antibiotics was 44.83%. Percentage of drugs prescribed from National Essential drug list (NEDL)/National Formulary of India (NFI) was 19.48%. Patient's knowledge of correct dosage was 93.83%. Antimicrobial agents were the most commonly prescribed drugs followed by antiallergy drugs and ocular lubricants. Fluoroquinolones accounted for 60% of the total antimicrobial drugs, of which gatifloxacin was the most frequently prescribed fluoroquinolone. Conclusion. The study indicated an awareness of polypharmacy, but showed ample scope for improvement in encouraging the ophthalmologists to prescribe by generic name and selection of essential drugs from NEDL/NFI. 1. Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined drug utilization research as the marketing, distribution, prescription, and use of drugs in a society, with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social, and economic consequences [1–3]. It is an essential part of pharmacoepidemiology which describes the extent, nature, and determinants of drug exposure with the ultimate goal to facilitate rational use of drugs in the population [1–4]. Drug therapy is a major component of patient care management in health care settings. Prescribers and consumers are flooded with a vast array of pharmaceutical products with innumerable brand names, available often at an unaffordable cost [5]. Irrational and inappropriate use of drugs in health care system observed globally is a major concern [1, 6, 7]. To address the rising microbial resistance, physicians readily accept and indiscriminately use newly developed expensive and broad spectrum antibiotics which further contribute to increase rates of antimicrobial resistance and health care costs [8]. Recently in the discipline of ophthalmology, there have been many drug developments and introduction of new ocular therapeutic agents [9, 10]. Antibiotics are
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