Abstract
Background: Conducting drug utilization studies are crucial, particularly for pediatric patients, as it helps improve the prescribing patterns and usage of medications in the health-care system. However, there is a scarcity of research on the utilization of drugs in children, making this study an invaluable resource for understanding prescription patterns.

Aims and Objectives: Main objectives behind our study were to examine and evaluate such prescription pattern in detail including antibiotics usage and prescription analysis using core drug prescribing indicators given by the World Health Organization (WHO), to evaluate adverse drug reactions that are observed during study and to evaluate drug-drug interactions (DDIs).

Materials and Methods: This is an observational cross-sectional study of 12-month duration started after intuitional ethical committee approval. Total 450 prescriptions were studied. The study included all patients, regardless of gender, who were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Results: Our study found that the average number of drugs per prescription was 4.87. In addition, a high percentage of drugs, specifically 97.39%, were prescribed using their generic names, while 94.84% of drugs prescribed were from the WHO essential drug list for children. Moreover, we observed that in 88.88% of encounters, antibiotics were prescribed and percentage of prescriptions, in which drugs were prescribed through injectable route, was 98.22%. Very minimal amount of adverse drug reaction was seen in patients. In our study, in 75.77% of the prescriptions, DDIs were not found.

Conclusion: The study found that generic names of drugs were frequently used, and a high percentage of drugs prescribed were from the WHO essential drug list. However, the study also revealed a high percentage of encounters with antibiotics and injections prescribed. The occurrence of adverse drug reactions was minimal in the study. Moreover, most prescriptions did not exhibit DDIs, indicating appropriate therapeutic management in the PICU.

Key words: Drug Utilization Study; Adverse Drug Reaction; Drug Interaction; Pediatric Intensive Care Unit; Antibiotic