Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use in patients with chronic kidney disease are often prescribed from different clinicians than those who diagnosed them

Purpose: When prescribing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for chronic kidney disease (CKD), patients' pathology and concomitant medications should be considered. In our pharmaceutical experience, NSAIDs are often prescribed by departments that are different from those that diagnosed CKD. That is, NSAIDs may be prescribed for patients without the advice of the clinicians who diagnosed them. In this study, we aimed to elucidate how frequently such cases occur. Methods: We used the large health insurance claims database constructed by JMDC Inc., Tokyo. We evaluated the proportions of CKD diagnosis and NSAID prescription by different clinical departments and institutions. Results: A total of 224 014 out-patients were included in the analysis; they were divided into CKD (n = 1501) and non-CKD groups (n = 222 513). The internal medicine departments diagnosed CKD most frequently (74.8% of the patients) and surgical departments rarely diagnosed CKD. However, the proportion of prescribed NSAIDs was high in other departments, especially surgical departments. In the CKD group, 50.4% of the patients received CKD diagnosis and NSAID prescription from different clinical departments; 72.8% of the patients received a diagnosis and prescription from different medical institutions. Conclusion: Our study revealed that NSAIDs are often prescribed to patients with CKD from different clinicians than those who diagnosed them.