An overview of paracetamol syrup prescribing pattern based on weight at Seberang Jaya Hospital

Paracetamol syrup is very widely used as over the counter drug to treat minor illness and for fever. Our aim is to determine whether the dosage of paracetamol syrup prescribed by medical officer's in Seberang Jaya Hospital in accordance to weight based recommended dosage which is 10 - l 5mg/kg. The study was carried out by collecting 123 prescriptions from 3rd November 2008 until 3rd January 2009. The prescription were classified in 4 groups; age, frequency, department and dose. During the study, it was found that most of the physicians are prescribed paracetamol dose based on age rather than weight. Results obtained shows that the highest percentage of overdose (28.2%) in Accident and Emergency (A & E) department, approximately 50% of under dose in Medical Department and the highest normal dose about 76.39% from pediatric department. In conclusion, there was an increased of prescription that prescribing syrup paracetamol according to age than weight. However, it is not fault to prescribing paracetamol based on age but it is definitely accurate if we prescribed based on weight.