[Analysis of justifications for prescribing drugs which must be obtained abroad]

Clinical Pharmacological Expertises issued between 1986 and 1990 by the Outpatient Clinic for Pharmacotherapy at the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Center, Zagreb were analysed. The expertises evaluated the rationale of pharmacotherapy for patients claiming the need to obtain the drug from abroad. Basis for this evaluation was the patients' medical documentation, or more rarely, physical examination of the patient. For the decision various sources were consulted. The aim of this analysis was to obtain yet another insight into the rationale of the pharmacotherapy in Croatia, and a partial overview of the quality and lack of approved drugs. Among 1293 analysed expertises, in only 46% of the patients the prescription of the drug was evaluated as rational. The administration of approved drugs was more often correct than the administration of nonapproved ones. The approved drugs whose prescription was always evaluated as unnecessary are listed, what could be of use for the renewal of the drug approval in Croatia. Among all the drugs, antineoplastic drugs were mostly appropriately prescribed, while the expertises concerning drugs for cardiovascular and nervous system were mostly negative. Expertises on certain drugs are more thoroughly discussed. Since we cannot claim that we had a representative sample of drug prescriptions; this analysis is not providing a real picture of the pharmacotherapy in Croatia, but the results may stimulate further, more systematic, evaluations.