First prescription analysis of anxiolytics in a tertiary care center: a pilot study

Abstract

Background: There is limited evidence in Indian literature regarding the prescribing pattern of anxiolytics. Hence a drug utilization study was designed to assess the prescription trends of antxiolytics in our tertiary care centre.

Methods: The study population comprised of all newly diagnosed patients of anxiety attending the tertiary care hospital. This was a part of a study which included all patients with psychiatric disorders.

Results: Clonazepam 151(72.24%) was the most commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drug followed by lorazepam 40(19.14%), diazepam 13(6.22%), andetizolam 5(2.4%) was the least prescribed anti-anxiety.

Conclusions: The published evidences confirm that Cloanazepam was the preferred anxiolytic. This suggests that there is trend of using shorter acting benzodiazepines.