Hypertension is an important public health challenge because of the associated morbidity and mortality and the cost to society. A prescription monitoring study for antihypertensive drugs was undertaken in the medicine outpatient department of 450 bedded private tertiary level referral hospitalin south Malabar region of Kerala. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current trend of pattern of prescribing of antihypertensive drug and to identify whether such pattern of prescription is appropriate and accordance with the national guidelines for pharmacotherapy of hypertension.A retrospective study of 4 months duration was undertaken from January 2014 to May 2014. A specially designed data collection form was used for collecting patient’s data. The data collection form contained details on age, gender, social history, blood pressure readings, brand name of drugs, drug, dosages and duration of the patient’s treatment. 165 patients with primary hypertension without any associated co-morbidities were selected for the study. Phadke'scriteria was used for assessment of appropriateness of prescribing. From the study it was found that most patients were being treated with two or more drugs. Calcium channel blockers were most frequently prescribed antihypertensive medicines followed by diuretics, beta blockers, α-blockers, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, vasodialators, α+β blockers and central sympatholytics. Among the 165 prescriptions, 67.92% of the patients were prescribed combination therapy. Most commonly used combination was CCB+ β blocker+ α blocker(7.55%). Based on the Phadke’s evaluation criteria, 87.27% prescription was found to be rational, 12.72% semi-rational and 0% were irrational.
