Guidelines for ATC classification and DDD assignment - WHOCC

DDDs per 100 bed days Applied when in-hospital drug use is considered. E.g. 100
DDD per 100 bed days indicates that for instance 20 persons
get a certain treatment for 5 days (page 34).
DDDs per inhabitant per year Often used for antiinfectives or other drugs normally used in
short periods. E.g. 5 DDDs/inhabitant/year indicate that every
inhabitant on average is treated with a 5 days course a year
(page 34).
Double medication Simultaneous use of two preparations containing the same
chemical substance (the same 5th level) (page 36).
DURG Drug Utilization Research Group (page 10).
EphMRA European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (page
21).
Fixed dose DDDs based on the average use for preparations within a
group without considering and comparing the strengths of the
different preparations (page 26).
IMS Intercontinental Medical Statistics. IMS produces marketing
research statistics for the pharmaceutical industry (page 22).
INN International nonproprietary names. The preferred substance
name in the ATC-system (page 15).
Intermittent dosing In therapeutic groups e.g. hormones, where many of the
preparations are administered intermittently, the dose
administered is divided by the number of days in the
treatment period to obtain the average daily dose (page 26).
Maintenance dose The dose preferred when establishing the DDD. Some drugs
are used in different initial doses but this is not reflected in
the DDD (page 23).
NLN The Nordic Council on Medicines (page 10).
“Other” group 3rd or 4th level, often named X, used for substances not
clearly belonging to any existing ATC 3rd or 4th level (page
18).
PBIRG Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence and Research Group
(page 21).
PDD The Prescribed Daily Dose for a substance is determined
from prescription studies, medical- or pharmacy records and
patient interviews. The PDD must be related to the diagnosis
on which the dosage is based (page 31).
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