Patterns of analgesic prescribing in a South African primary care setting

The primary aim of this study was to assess patterns of prescribing of analgesic medications in a primary care setting in South Africa. Medication records of 47 103 patients for the year 1995 were retrospectively reviewed. Analgesic agents represented 12·3% of the total number and 14·2% of the total cost of all the products prescribed. Analgesic products were prescribed to nearly three times as many females as males. Most analgesic prescriptions were for non-opioid analgesics (93·8%). More than half (56·8%) of all the prescriptions for analgesics were available without a prescription from a medical practitioner. Analgesic prescription diminished as age increased. The high prescribing rate of analgesics to children younger than 10 years was a cause for concern. Furthermore, meprobamate-containing analgesics accounted for 12·2% of central nervous system drugs and 28·1% of the non-opioid analgesics that were prescribed. This finding was also a cause for concern due to the dependence-producing properties of meprobamate. It was concluded that the pharmacist has an important role to fulfil in the counselling of patients with respect to the use of analgesic products.