In recent years drug utilization studies have become a potential tool to be used in the evaluation of health systems. On the process of drug utilization studies focus on factors related to prescribing, dispensing, administering and taking of medication, and its associated events. Drug utilization data are available from databases- computerized or otherwise. From these databases different types of information, qualitative or quantitative or referring to a particular population are available. for collecting information on drug utilization Patient files and computer registries are widely used as instruments. depending upon the timing of data collection Prospective, Concurrent or Retrospective Drug Utilization studies may be used. Importance of drug utilization studies in pharmacoepidemiology has been increasing due to their close association to other areas like- public health, pharmacovigilance, Pharmacoeconomics and pharmacogenetics. This review article highlights various aspects, cycle, steps, need, scope, types, future perspectives.
