Pharmacoepidemiological Assessment of Pain Management in Hospitalized Patients-A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Pain is recognized as a persistent global health problem, which has great impact on the quality of life of the society and can have physical, psychological and social consequences. Objectives: The study was planned to assess prescribing pattern of analgesics and patient satisfaction with treatment. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care teaching hospital for six months. A total of 171 inpatients were included in the study and data was collected using data entry forms and pain assessment scales. Results: Out of 171 study population, male patients were more (55.55%) and most of the patients were in the age group of 40-65 years (47.95%). Among all prescriptions, majority of patients were prescribed with single analgesic (52.04%) and preferred dosage form was injections (55.43%). Among all prescription analgesics were more prescribed for duration of 1-5 days (60.70%). The category of analgesics more prescribed were non-opioids (86.31%) and the most common analgesic combination was found to be Aceclofenac + Paracetamol + Serratiopeptidase (45.07%) followed by Aceclofenac + Paracetamol (38.02%). Patient satisfaction with pain management was analyzed using pain scales which indicated that 72 patients (42.10%) were having moderate pain after the treatment. Conclusion: In the study population, comparatively more patients were satisfied with the treatment. Proper pain assessment using appropriate methods will help to optimize the analgesic use and will improve the clinical outcome and reduce the hospital stay.