Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is currently the fourth leading cause of death globally. Although drugs are not the only therapeutic interventions that provide desired health outcomes, study of drug prescribing patterns in the management of COPD alone or with complications helps to rationalize their use efficiently and in sufficient quantities.  Objective: To evaluate the prescribing patterns of drugs in the treatment of COPD in the pulmonary medicine department of a 1200 bed tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangaluru.  Methodology: A prospective cross sectional observational study was conducted in the outpatients of the pulmonary medicine department for a period of six months from September 2017 to February 2018. Prescribing patterns in the patients diagnosed with COPD with or without comorbidities was collected and analysed. The collected information was summarized using descriptive statistics.  Results: A total of 150 patients were evaluated in the study it was found that the occurrence of COPD was predominantly higher in males (75.3%) than that in females (24. 6%). The age group in which the disease was most common was between 61 to 70 years. Smoking was identified as the major risk as 62% of the patients were smokers and 38% were non-smokers. Majority of patients diagnosed with COPD were maintained on theophylline (78.6%), followed by formoterol (47.3%) and budesonide (40.65). Antibiotics were also used, to treat secondary infections. The highest prescribed antibiotic was cephalosporin (38.7%). The most prescribed combination therapy was formoterol + budesonide (40%).  Conclusion: Prescribing pattern provides a classic frame of trends in prescribing according to various general practitioners and it will help to improve patient management by rationalizing drug use.

Keywords- COPD, prescribing patterns, methylxanthines, bronchodilators, antibiotics