Communication · Volume 13, Issue 2 · pp. 186–188

A Retrospective Analysis on the Pharmacological Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Subair MA², Sharad Chand², Nandakumar UP², Ganaraj Kulamarva², Juno J Joel²

¹Department of Pharmacy Practice, NITTE Gulabi Shetty Memorial Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (NGSMIPS), NITTE (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, INDIA.
²Department of Gastroenterology, Justice KS Hegde Charitable Hospital, NITTE (Deemed to be University), Mangaluru, Karnataka, INDIA.

Abstract

Objectives: To analyze the pattern of drugs prescribed to treat irritable bowel syndrome among patients admitted in a tertiary care teaching hospital.Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was carried out among 120 inpatients of the general medicine department for a period of eight months from August 2019 to April 2020. The data of the patients admitted to the hospital over a period of five years was collected from the medical records department in a specially designed data collection form. The prescription pattern of the drugs used in the management of irritable bowel syndrome was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: Among 120 patients, n=68 were diagnosed with inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS)-D, n=30 with IBS-M and n=22 diagnosed with IBS-C. The occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome was higher in males (55%) than in females (45%). The most common clinical presentation was found to be abdominal pain, reported among 63.33% of the total patients. Probiotics were the most widely prescribed medications n=73(14.39%), followed by pantoprazole n=65 (12.82%).Conclusion:In the study, movement modulators followed by adjunctive gastrointestinal agents, psychoactive substances and antibiotics were commonly prescribed for the management of irritable bowel syndrome.

Keywords: IBS; Pharmacotherapy; Abdominal pain; Colonoscopy; Probiotics

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