AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRESCRIBING OF ANALGESICS

Objective. To investigate the prescribing of analgesic agents in a def ined South African patient population. Design. Retrospective drug util isation study. Setting. Prescribing behaviour of a sample of 50 dispen sing doctors in Port Elizabeth. Data were obtained from a medical aid which used a formulary system. Main outcome measures. Percentage of ce ntral nervous system drugs that analgesics comprised; proportion of pa tients using combination analgesics; cost of analgesics. Results. On a verage, 83.3% of all central nervous system drugs dispensed were analg esic agents. These agents represented 70.9% of the total cost of centr al nervous system drugs. A high percentage (82.2%) of the analgesic ag ents dispensed were combination or polycomponent analgesics. The combi nation analgesic tablet, consisting of paracetamol, meprobamate, caffe ine and codeine phosphate, was the most frequently prescribed central nervous system drug. This product accounted on average for 40.4% of al l analgesics dispensed. Nearly half (46.0%) of all the analgesics disp ensed by the sample of doctors were available without a prescription. Conclusion. The high prescribing rate of combination analgesic prescri ption was a cause for concern, given the dependence-producing potentia l of some of the ingredients, e.g. meprobamate. The prescribing and us e of analgesics should be carefully monitored by further drug utilisat ion studies in light of the serious adverse effects, such as analgesic nephropathy, associated with the longterm use of these agents.