European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PRESCRIPTION PATTERN IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL: A SYSTEMIC REVIEW

Syeda Zuleqaunnisa Begum*, Fariya Azeem and Fazilath Fatima

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-Lasting autoimmune disorder that affects joints. It usually results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Methodology: The methodology included the plan of work with the literature review and understanding the management, to study the outcomes of the treatment and patient counselling. The study site for this was the inpatient ward of orthopaedics department, Tertiary care hospital. The type of study site was observational study and the patient selection was randomly done. The inclusion criteria being the patients (male and Female) with age group 40-70 years and the exclusion criteria are the pediatric patients greator than 30 years and the pregnant women. The study period is for 3 months with 30 patients. The present study was conducted to find out prescribing pattern of drugs used in Rheumatoid arthritis emergencies in tertiary care hospital. Total 30 patients case sheets were analysed during 3 month study period. Result and Discussion: The total percentage of male and female in 30 patients was found to be 76.6% (female) and 23.4% (male). From this chart it is clear that Females are more prone to Rheumatoid Arthritis. Patients with age group from 40-70yrs were included in the study. The patient age group falls in 3 categories i.e; class interval 40-50age, 50-60age, 60-70age. The highest percentage of patients were seen in the second category i.e; age group (50-60) and the lowest percentage in the third category age group (60-70). The most common symptoms was multiple Joint pain in 17 pateints (56%) and Swelling was the next common symptom in 16 patients (53%) and the other symptoms include joint pain in 7 patients(23%), Joint tenderness in 1 patient (3%), Stiffness in 12 patients (40%), Deformity in 2 patients (6%), fever in 11 patients (36%). After treatment there is a difference in percentage of the frequency of symptoms i.e; Joint pain (20%), Swelling (40%), Stiffness (6%), Fever (33%). The drugs used In Ra are NSAID, antianaemics, anti-inflammatory & analgesics, Antimetabolite, DMARD, Analgesics, calcium supplements. This chart shows that the most widely used drug in the treatment of RA is Anti Metabolite (18), NSAID (15) Antianaemics (15) Anti inflammatory & analgesics (15), DMARD (14), Analgesics (12), calcium supplements (3). They are various other drugs that are used with Anti RA drugs in the treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis such as Antibiotic, antiemetics, cephalosporin antibiotics, anticonvulsants. Conclusion: RA is common disease with widespread focal joint destruction and complications secondary to systemic inflammation. Recent treatment option based on better understanding of disease pathology has led to immense changes in the management of this disease. Drug prescribing pattern depicts that the most commonly prescribed drugs were DMARDS, vitamin-D3 and calcium supplements and analgesics.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, pain, inflammation, analgesic, calcium supplements, Dmards.