Rational Drug Use

Abstract

There is concern regarding the irrational production, prescription and use of drugs in India like, overuse of antibiotics in mild non-bacterial infections; indiscriminate use of antidiarrheals in childhood diarrhea, polypharmacy in elderly population, use of tonics and multivitamins for malnutrition etc. The doctors, pharmacists, nurses and the patients are the primary stake- holders involved in drug use and they some times lack all the needed related information. Physicians frequently have inadequate information on newer drugs/combinations, pharmacists are unfamiliar about the drugs they dispense, nurses do not know about the drugs they administer and the patients are often ignorant about the drugs they consume