A cross-sectional study of errors in physicians orders' of antiseizure medications among people with epilepsy from rural India.

• Errors are common among medication order provided by non-specialist and specialist. • Errors are common among Primary care and AYUSH Physicians orders'. • Audit of Physician orders' at a larger level might reduce these errors. To enumerate and classify errors in physicians' orders of antiseizure medications (ASMs) to people with epilepsy presenting to neurology clinic. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the neurology clinic of a teaching hospital catering to a predominantly rural population. People in whom a diagnosis of epilepsy was confirmed and who presented for the first time with a prior prescription for antiseizure medication/s were included. Their immediate previous prescriptions were assessed for errors, enumerated and classified according to WHO guidelines for prescription writing. Hundred prescriptions of 334 patients screened were analyzed. The number of ASMs prescribed to a participant was 2 ± 0.6 (mean ± SD). We identified a mean of 5 ± 4 (median: 3; range: 1–7) errors in each order. These included superscription errors, e.g., missing information on seizure control and frequency (n = 90, 90%), generic name (n = 62, 62%), patient identifiers (n = 57, 57%), prescribers' identifiers (n = 29, 29%) and diagnosis or indication for prescribing the medication/s (n = 55, 55%). The most common inscription and subscription errors were dosing errors (22%) and pharmaceutical form errors (20%) followed by omission (13%), duplication (13%), substitution (12%), commission (9%) and frequency errors (8%). Errors were more common among prescriptions provided by primary-care and Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) physicians compared to specialists (P < 0.05). Errors are common among medication orders provided by non-specialist and specialist physicians. Primary care and AYUSH are more liable to make errors underscoring the need to educate them in basic epilepsy treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]