Drug use pattern in children at a teaching hospital.

This study aimed to evaluate drug utilization in pediatric out-patient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. The patient and drug information of 254 patients was analyzed for WHO recommended prescribing indicators. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.31 and 45% of medicines were prescribed from National List of Essential Medicines. The use of injectibles was low (1.18%) while an antibiotic was prescribed in 29.1%. Only 5.8% medicines were prescribed by generic name. Interventions are required to improve prescribing by generic name so as to further rationalize drug use in pediatric population.