Use of drugs subject to controlled prescriptions: a retrospective analysis

Evaluation of controlled prescriptions with a diagnosis of surgical intervention

OBJECTIVE

Drugs subject to control (DSC) are commonly used in the preoperative, per-operative and postoperative periods. In this study, details of DSC use, that are required to be prescribed to green prescriptions (GP) or red prescriptions (RP), for a surgical diagnosis were evaluated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Controlled drug prescriptions (CDP) between January to December 2009 were investigated in the archives of the Istanbul Local Health Authority. 660 CDPs indicating a surgical diagnosis were retrospectively evaluated and those prescribed by surgical departments (SD)were compared to those written by internal medicine departments (ID).

RESULTS

SD physicians prescribed 72.7% of CDPs and 89.5% of prescriptions were for GP, and 10.5% were for RP. The physicians of SD were found to prescribe more RP than ID physicians. Most of the CDPs were written for women (58.8%) and mostly in private hospitals (40.9%). Among all the physicians, orthopedic surgeons prescribed these drugs the most (20.9%). Tramadol was the most common drug found in CDPs (55.5%).

CONCLUSION

DSCs, which have difficult prescription procedures, are used frequently in surgical interventions. The study shows that not only SD physicians, but also ID physicians prefer CDP. The study provides important clues to the usage patterns of DSCs. Recently evolving health care systems including prescriptions should use these findings obtained from the study.