Abdalla Elkhawad, Ahmed Abdel Mageid, Azza Elias, Hiba Osman, Rayan Yousif. Ahfad University for Women. Assessment of the behavior of the community pharmacists towards contraindications and Drug-Drug interactions with non-Steroid anti-inflamatory Drug (NSAIDS).

Elkhawad, Abdalla ; Mageid, Ahmed Abdel ; Elias, Azza 等

Abdalla Elkhawad, Ahmed Abdel Mageid, Azza Elias, Hiba Osman, Rayan Yousif. Ahfad University for Women. Assessment of the behavior of the community pharmacists towards contraindications and Drug-Drug interactions with non-Steroid anti-inflamatory Drug (NSAIDS)

This study aimed at assessment of the behavior and knowledge of the community pharmacists about contraindications and Drug-Drug

Interactions of the Non Steroidal Anti inflammatory Drugs. This study was conducted on 300 community pharmacists who were randomly selected from three cities (Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman) in Khartoum State. The information was collected through four Scenarios as mystery shoppers and six false prescriptions. Each scenario and prescription was repeated 30 times. Some of the important findings include:

--Out of he 30 respondents only 2 respondents observed the interaction between Warfarin 1mg and Aspirin 100mg and reacted as they should. They did not dispense the medicine but referred the patient to the doctor. The rest did not react as they should.

--Out of the 30 respondents only one observed the contraindication of Asthmatic patient with acute breathlessness and Aspirin 300mg but also did not react as he should and dispensed the medicine.

--The rest did react as they should.

According, the behavior of the 300 pharmacist towards proper dispensing of drugs with interactions, medicinal contraindications as well as communication skills seemed very poor. Even the few of them who could notice the drug-drug interactions and/or contraindications of NSAIDs still dispensed the drugs as if the dispensing of drugs and medicines resembles selling food commodities in supermarkets. Therefore, it is recommended that the curricula of pharmacy schools and faculties should include pharmaceutical care and communication skills courses. Pharmacists should be exposed to frequent training programs to update their pharmaceutical knowledge of Drug-Drug interactions and contraindications of NSAIDs.