A cross-sectional retrospective study to assess the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drug therapy in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Imphal, Manipur

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the Prescribing practice of antihypertensive medications in a tertiary care hospital in North East India and to assess the appropriateness of the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs as per the seventh report of the Joint National Committee (JNC-7) guidelines. Methodology: A cross-sectional retrospective study was carried out for the month of October 2016- March 2017. Inpatient hypertensive cases suffering from hypertension with or without co-morbidities were included and were analyzed on the basis of age, percentage of male and female patients, anti-hypertensive drug category, most frequently prescribed hypertensive drug and percentage of one or two drug combination. Results: A total of 200 hypertensive patients on treatment, of which 37% were females and 62.8% males, were included. The most common co-morbid condition was Diabetes Mellitus. The most common drugs involved in the study were calcium channel blockers 47% followed by angiotensin II receptor blockers 22%.The commonest two drug therapy was with BB and CCB(32.9%), followed by ARB and CCB (21.1%), CCB and Diuretics (16.4%), ACEI and diuretic (11.7%) Conclusions: The most favored class of antihypertensive drugs, in hypertensive patients with or without comorbidities was CCBs. There was underutilization of thiazide diuretics, ACEIs and BBs in this study. Overall the general pattern of antihypertensive prescribing in this study is only partly in accordance with the guidelines of JNC-7.