Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Prescribing Practices and Cost of Drugs for Peptic Ulcer in a Primary Health Center in Pulau Penang, Malaysia

Ahmad Almeman , Ali Saleh Alkhoshaiban, Seemab Rasool

Pharmacy School-Unaizah, Almulaida, 2Prince Sultan Cardiac Center (PSCC), Buraidah, Al Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;

For correspondence:- Ahmad Almeman Email: ahmadalmeman@gmail.com Tel:+00966548889712

Received: 13 May 2013 Accepted: 15 July 2013 Published: 23 August 2013

Citation: Almeman A, Alkhoshaiban AS, Rasool S. Prescribing Practices and Cost of Drugs for Peptic Ulcer in a Primary Health Center in Pulau Penang, Malaysia. Trop J Pharm Res 2013; 12(4):629-634 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v12i4.28

© 2013 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: Description of the prescribing patterns of gastric acid suppressant treatment in peptic ulcer disease and the cost analysis in a tertiary health center in Malaysia.

Methods: A cross sectional retrospective study was conducted at a Universiti Sans Malaysia (USM) Health Center, Clinic, Malaysia. Convenience sampling was used to include 100 peptic ulcer patients.

Results: Sixty three percent of the patients were male and 37 % female. The majority of the patients were Malay (71 %) and mean age was 46 ± 9.7 years. The most frequently prescribed monotherapy antiulcer drugs were ranitidine (83 %) and omeprazole (17 %), while for combination therapy (with antacids), it was ranitidine (85 %). The average cost of anti-ulcer drug therapy was 15.54 Ringgit Malaysian (RM), i.e., (USD 4.98) for omeprazole and RM 4.62 (USD 1.48) for ranitidine.

Conclusion: The practitioners in this study preferred to prescribe ranitidine much more frequently than omeprazole. Considering the cost burden of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and their relatively more adverse effects, this may be a cost-effective strategy, but the benefits of ranitidine in terms of therapeutic efficacy need to be ascertained.

Keywords: Peptic ulcer, Gastric acid suppressant, H2 receptor antagonist, Proton pump inhibitor