Original Article PATTERNS OF DRUG THERAPY AMONG DIABETIC HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS WITH OTHER COMPLICATIONS DR. ZAKIA HUSSAIN 1 , DR. AMTUL SANA 2 , SALAHUDDIN MOHAMMED *3 , MOHAMMED ABDUL RAZZAQ Received: 19 Apr 2014 Revised and Accepted: 19 May 2014 ABSTRACT Objectives: There are many variations in prescribing patterns of Diabetes mellitus with hypertension which requires lifelong treatment as enormously increased the burden of chronic diseases and needs much care while choosing drugs. In a tertiary care centre, prescribing pattern are powerful tools to ascertain the role of drugs in society. Hence, there is a need for appropriate, safe, effective and economical study to find out the patterns of drug therapy among diabetic hypertensive patients with other complications. Methods: Retrospective, randomized and non-interventional study design was conducted from April 2012 to September 2012 at a 600 bedded multispecialty tertiary care teaching hospital in south India.The collected data are thoroughly analysed and prescriptions were checked for appropriateness. For easy sorting all data obtained were entered into Microsoft Excel 2000 and cross-checked for accuracy. The data collected were analysed to obtain averages, percentages and standard deviations. The data were grouped on the bases of age, gender, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, co morbidities, various classes of drugs and analysed for significance. Results: Patterns of drug therapy among Diabetic hypertensive patients with other complications was observed in 117 subjects, out of which males are more affected than females in the age group of 50-60 years. The most common drug administered for Diabetes was Metformin whereas for hypertension, Telmisartan was administered. There was a positive relationship between fasting blood glucose and systolic blood pressure. Conclusion: Lacuna in the present prescribing pattern is underutilization of diuretics. Further studies from time to time are required in drug utilization pattern and standard treatment guidelines to be circulated among practicing physicians. Our study was done for a short period of time and the number of patients studied was low. Hence, similar studies covering large number of patients are needed to confirm our findings. 4 College of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia, Malla Reddy College of Pharmacy, Dhulapally, Secunderabad. Deccan School of Pharmacy, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad Email: salahuddin_pharma48@yahoo.com Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Drug Utilization, JNC VII, Treatment. INTRODUCTION Diabetes mellitus (DM) is group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycaemia which are caused by a complex interaction of genetics and environmental factors. In the United States, DM is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), traumatic lower extremity amputations, and adult blindness. It also predisposes to cardiovascular diseases. With an increasing incidence worldwide, DM will be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for the foreseeable future. The treatment goal for DM is to prevent mortality and complications by normalizing blood glucose level. But blood glucose level might be increased despite of appropriate therapy in patients leading to diabetic complications, such as disturbances in fat metabolism, nerve damage, and eye disease [1-5]. The common causes of diabetic complication are poor control of diabetes either due to non-adherence, poor attitude towards the disaease and its complications, unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity and due to poor managment by the health care professionals [6-8] Despite this complications diabetes can predispose the individual for differentinfections [9-13]. The final outcome of diabetes is disability, and/or [9-13] indirect (costs of hospitalizations, loss of vision, lower extremity amputations, kidney failure, and cardiovascular events)[14,15]. Thus, prevention is cost effective than treatment and managment of diabetic complications[16,17] Though this is the case in many parts of the world especialy in developed countries [8,16,18], to our knowledge comprehensive study is lacking in our country except on patterns of drug therapy and some on prevalence of complications[11]. Different studies infact of different methodological quality [19] have documented the complications of diabetes in different setups including hospitals and community [11,20,21] on attitude of patients [7,22-24] and adherence patterns[25-28]. These all can lead to death though one affects the other[6,9]. Diabetes and its complications are among common reasons for inpatient patient admissions acounting for about 4.4%[6] of total admissions leading to to about 3.4%[29] to 32.5% [9] total deaths. . The prevalence of chronic complications varies from 52.0% to 74.2%[11, 12, 20, 30]. The common chronic complications were erectile dysfunction 64% [31], visual disturbance (33.8%[11]), Cardiovascular disorders (30.1%[30]) though hypertension alone was 68%[32], neuropathy (29.5%[11]), and nephropathy (15.7%[11]). . Negative attitude of patients towards diabetes managments such as dietary modifictaions, excersise, and insulin therapy are common and ultimately canlead to diabeic complications[33] Likewise acute complications had similar trend which ranges 30.5% among which DKA was 71% followed by hypoglycemia 19.4% but Hyperosmolar Hyper-glycemic State was insignificant[11]. The common risk factors for occurence of complications were gender [7], longduration with diabetes[12], poor and inadequate glycemic control[21], negative attitude towards diabetes[21,22] poor treatment adherence [25]and poor knowledge about the disease and its managment[21,22]. . . About 18% of patients percieve that balanced diet low in sugar/sweets is important for diabetes control while 52% thought that only sweets should be stopped [22]. Negative attitude can be developed due to various reasonsone of which is lack of education [34]. Thus, better under-standing of perceptions and attitudes among both patients and providers is needed to guide initiatives to improve the management of diabetes[19,27]. Though diabetes is fatal disease, of our knowlege there are no comprehensive studies conducted in the study area. Thus, this study is aimed indeterming the prescription pattern in type-2 diabetes mellitus with coexisting hypertension, prevelence of diabetes related complications and related risk factors, International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN- 0975-1491 Vol 6, Issue 6, 2014 Innovare Academic Sciences