The Drug Regimen Prescribed for Sickle Cell Patients Attending a Clinic in Kumasi, Ghana, in a Period of One Year

Objective: In order to manage the varied pathophysiological features of sickle cell disease (SCD), an array of drugs has to be used. The specific drugs used, however, depend on the locality. This study was aimed at finding out the drug regimen prescribed by clinicians to sickle cell disease patients who attended a Sickle Cell Clinic in Kumasi, Ghana. Method: The setting for the study is the Sickle Cell Clinic at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana, and a questionnaire was used as the study instrument. Information on drug prescription on each day of clinic visit was extracted from the medical records of the patients. Results: The drugs prescribed were “routine drugs” for SCD patients, analgesics, narcotics, anti-malarials, antibiotics, haematinics and miscellaneous drugs. The top ten commonly prescribed drugs were folic acid, diclofenac, ibuprofen, B-complex, routine drugs, artesunate/amodiaquin, paracetamol, penicillin V, amoxiclav and zincovit. Conclusion: Within the year, the drugs prescribed included those that could prevent vitamin and zinc deficiency due to continuing haemolysis, those that could mitigate the pain and inflammation from vaso-occlusion and reperfusion injury, as well as antibiotics to combat infections. Being a malarial-endemic region, prophylaxis with daraprim and symptomatic malaria fever therapy were common practices. This study has thus shown that the well-being of SCD patients in our typical tropical terrain, depends on haematinic vitamin/mineral supplements, anti-malarials, analgesics-anti-inflammatory, antipyretics and antibiotics.