A STUDY ON PREVALENCE OF POLYPHARMACY AND THE DRUG RELATED PROBLEMS IN SURGICAL WARD OF DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

The objective was to assess the prevalence of polypharmacy in the surgical ward of department of surgery of The Oxford Medical College and Research Centre, Attibele, Bangalore. An observational study was carried out on a sample size of 150 patients including 76 male and 74 female patients. The prevalence of polypharmacy was found to be 73% and about 55.45% of cases of polypharmacy were seen between 61 to 80 years. Patients of this age group also had the maximum instances of taking more than 9 medicines.55% moderate drug interaction was seen with 60% probable ADRs as the drug related problems. So there should be a combined effort from all the healthcare professionals to reduce the incidence of polypharmacy wherever possible.