Abstract
Background: Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) disorders are some of the most prevalent conditions that are encountered in outpatient environments and that may in many instances be treated by means of medications. The growing tendencies of self-medication, irrational prescribing practices, such as polypharmacy and inappropriate use of the antibiotics are threatening patient safety and national well-being To determine the patterns and trends of inpatient usage of the antimicrobials commonly available as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and to identify the prevalence and the trends of the over-the- The cross-sectional observational study in a tertiary care hospital was carried out in the ENT outpatient department of the hospital. Convenient sampling method was employed to include a total of 454 participants. The structured form of case record form and validated questionnaire were used in data collection. The WHO/INRUD prescribing indicators were used to analyze the prescriptions, and the self-medication practices were assessed via patient interviews. The SPSS was used to perform statistical analysis such as descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. The largest percentage of patients (79.1 out 454 patients) were of the female gender. The most common age group was 21–30 years (21.1%). The most common category of drug prescribed (66.7%), was anti-biotics. The prevalence of combination therapy over the monotherapy was more prevalent with prescriptions containing three or more drugs being most frequent (n=219). The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.48 +.08. There was a high proportion of drugs being ordered based on the essential drug list (97.4%), and generic prescription was observed in 73.8% of the cases. Drug misuse was prevalent, with 62.1 percent of the respondents stating that they used unspecified OTC medications. The most frequent diagnosis was tonsillitis (22.0), and the next common diagnosis was infections with upper respiratory tract (10.8). The research paper points to a high rate of antibiotic prescribing, as well as a bias towards the use of a combination treatment in ENT practice. Despite a high level of compliance with the recommendations of crucial drug lists and using generic drugs, the irrational practices of excessive use of antibiotics and widespread self-medication persisted