Informational sources on pharmaceutical medicines and factors affecting medication prescriptions: Perspectives from Ghanaian physicians

Appropriate prescribing is an essential medical practice of physicians. However, physicians prescribing behaviors are likely to be affected by promotional activities of pharmaceutical industries and their representatives. In this paper, we sought to explore where physicians obtain information on pharmaceutical medicines; factors influencing their medication prescriptions; and experiences of prescribing. Three public hospitals and 28 doctors were purposively sampled. Structured in-depth interviews were conducted and data were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Results show that pharmaceutical representatives are the main sources of information on pharmaceutical drugs. Patient factors such as financial status; medical diagnosis and condition; and type of patient influenced physicians' prescribing practices. Physicians' experiences on drug prescription practices were mixed. Requests for prescriptions were mostly for over-the-counter medicines. Majority of physicians reported that patients' noncompliance to prescriptions was due to perceived superiority of alternative plant medicines. There is a need for stricter regulation on marketing nonprescribed pharmaceutical products to avoid fatal health implications through consumption of nonprescribed medicines.