Sivakumar R

DUE helps to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of drug use and there by helps to improve the patient care. It helps in identifying ADR, optimizing the drug therapy etc. Glucocorticoids are widely prescribed. In spite of these actions they produce several ADE which should be monitored. Till now, effective treatment guidelines for Glucocorticoids are not available, so our study aims to bring out a prescribing pattern for steroids. A prospective, observational study was conducted from November 2015 to April 2016.About 106 patients were included in the study. Of the 106 prescriptions analyzed, Clobetasol was most commonly prescribed topical corticosteroid (30%) and Prednisolone was most commonly used in systemic routes (25%). Diseases like contact dermatitis (26.41%) and eczema (25.47%) were most commonly seen.35 prescriptions contained fixed dose combination (25.92%). Most of the prescriptions contained monotherapy (64.15%). The generic name, strength, quantity to be used, site of application were not mentioned in most of the prescriptions. Frequent periodic prescription monitoring is essential for better healthcare outcomes for the patients.

Diabetic neuropathy has been reported as the most common complication of Diabetes mellitus. The antiepileptic agents along with the neurotrophic agents have been widely used for diabetic neuropathy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the mostly prescribing Pregabalin and Gabapentin with methylcobalamin. It was a prospective study including 200 patients considering 100 in each group. The primary outcome measure was the neuropathic pain scale. Secondary measure included the RAND36 measuring quality of life. Among the total cases collected, females were the highly affected population and patients under the age group of 60-69 years were highly prevalent. The majority of the patients had numbness and aching type of pain distributed in the lower extremities involving foot, toes,hip, leg etc. Hyperglycemia was considered as the major cause of DN. For the primary outcome variable, change in the NPS score was considered. The mean pain score at baseline was almost similar between treatment groups. Among both groups pain score was reduced at the end of the study indicating the pain relieving effect of both therapy. The change in QoL from baseline to the final week was measured in the RAND36 questionnaire. Significant improvement in QoL was reported in both treatment groups. The difference in this improvement among both groups shows a discrepancy. It may be due to the adverse reactions of the therapy. These discrepancies leave us with an equivocal result with regard to the efficacy of treatment groups in improving the QoL.

The aim of the work is to assess the socio- demographic and clinical profile of HIV/AIDS patients at antiretroviral therapy (ART) centre. The study was carried out District hospital Palakkad, Kerala, India from January to July 2014. Two hundred and sixty one HIV positive patients coming to ART centre were included in the study. A preformed questionnaire was made which included socio-demographic characteristics like age, sex, literacy status, marital status, occupation and clinical presentation. The male (49.8%) and female (50.1%) patients were almost equal in number. More number of patients was between the age group of 28-37 years constituting about 40.2%. Majority of the population was married (63.6%) and of their family members were infected (48.2%). The literacy level of most of the patients were only up to secondary school(47.1%).The most predominant route of transmission was heterosexual (81.2%). Most of the affected population was from the reproductive age group i.e., 28- 47 years which increases the economic burden and affects the overall development of the family, community and country. The education status and lack awareness about the disease is also associated with the spread of HIV infection, so health education regarding the prevention of HIV can be given with the help of video, charts and posters. Timely initiation and continuous antiretroviral therapy helps to prolong the survival, prevent opportunistic infections and also prevent the transmission of disease.