Objective:To describe the prescribing behavior of the physician in Kerala,and to describe types and number of medicine prescribed by doctors so as to rationalize the prescription writing habits of physician.Methods:A six month study was done to define the pattern of drug use in Medical college hospital,Calicut.The data and the other important aspects of study were collected by personal interview,questionnaires meant for doctors and prescription monitoring Performa for the patients issued by WHO.The findings of survey were critically analyzed.Results:The results indicated that majority of doctors prescribed on the basis of patient's history,patient's feed back report,drug availability,brand cost,quality of drug and ADRs.All the interviewed doctors looked upon the side effects.It was found that individual drugs were prescribed more than fixed dose combinations(85.6%).Out of these 71.5% were prescribed as branded and 28.5%as generic.The demographic data,like name,age,sex,disease diagnosis were available on all the patient health care cards and these constituted an essential part of the prescription particularly age and sex being an important in deciding the dose preference for patients.Socio economically most patients were found to be in the grade Ⅲ(Population below poverty line).During the study of drug related parameters.doses were mentioned only in 80%of the prescription.But duration of the drug therapy was found to be only 30%.These indicated the irrational use of prescription.Branded drugs prescribed were found to be 71.5%.which showed a trend towards a good prescription habit.The results indicated the rational use of drug.Conclusion:The survey reveales that most of the doctors in Medical college hospital,Calicut are maintaining rational use of drugs and their prescription writing habits was found to be good.