To determine patterns of prescribing in Iranian primary care, we analysed 4000 randomly selected prescriptions from 52 general practitioners (GPs) in Babol city during 1999-2000. The mean number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 4.4 +/- 1.7, with 98% prescribed by generic name. The most commonly prescribed items were non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (62.9% of encounters) and antibiotics (61.9%), followed by central nervous system drugs, gastrointestinal tract drugs, corticosteroids, vitamins and cardiovascular system drugs respectively. Injections were prescribed in 58.0% of encounters. Female and male doctors had significantly different antibiotic prescribing patterns. Our study confirms the tendency of GPs to overprescribe.
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Moghadamnia et al. (2002) studied this question.