Abstract

The exponential increase in patients with hypertension puts an enormous burden on healthcare providers. To describe the trends in the prescription of antihypertensive medication in a tertiary care hospital, Bangladesh is the objective of the study. This is a hospital based descriptive cross sectional study conducted at the Medicine outpatient Department in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Patients more than 20 years of age suffering from Hypertension were included in the study. Data was collected by interviewing using a semi-structured questionnaire and analysed by computer with the help of SPSS 16. A total hundred patients were included in the study and 61.6% patients were prescribed on single drug and 38.4% patients were prescribed on combined therapy. Among the prescriptions having single anti-hypertensive medication most commonly used drugs are Angiotensin Receptor Antagonist (37.3%), Calcium Channel Blocker (32.8%), and ACE Inhibitor (17.9%), Beta Blocker (6%), Alpha Blocker (3%), Thiazide and non-Thiazide Diuretics 1.5% each. Among the prescriptions having combined drug therapy Angiotensin Receptor Blocker along with Calcium Channel Blocker and Calcium Channel Blocker along with Beta Blocker were equally (28.1%) chosen by the physicians and use of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker along with Diuretics was 25%, ACE Inhibitor with Calcium Channel Blocker 3.1%, ACE Inhibitor with Diuretics 3.1%, Thiazide and Non Thiazide Diuretics was 3.1% and other drugs were used for 9.5%. Pattern of using antihypertensive medications varies according to presence of co-morbidities and duration but does not vary significantly between male and female patients.

Key words: Anti-hypertensive drugs, hypertension, prescription pattern, management of hypertension.