Ahmed Abdel Magied; Maha Mohamed Ahmed Tewfiek Hieba; Azza Omer Osman Abubaker Gaily and Israa Altayib Edress Ahmed (2007).

Magied, Ahmed Abdel

Ahmed Abdel Magied; Maha Mohamed Ahmed Tewfiek Hieba; Azza Omer Osman Abubaker Gaily and Israa Altayib Edress Ahmed (2007). The Awarness of Sudanese Pharmacists about Drug--Drug Interactions. School of Pharmacy, Ahfad University for Women. Omdurman.

This study aimed at the assessment of the awareness and knowledge of the community pharmacists about drug-drug interactions. The area of the study was Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman in Khartoum State. The target group included 200 pharmacists who were randomly selected and divided as follows: 70 pharmacists from Khartoum, 70 pharmacists from Omdurman, and 60 pharmacists from Khartoum North.

The primary data were collected through 3 prescriptions (each with drug-drug interaction). For each area one prescription was used.

The secondary data were collected from books, journals, dissertations, and internet sources.

Some of the important findings included:

In prescription one, none of the pharmacists referred the patient back to the doctor or refused to dispense nor did any of them advise the patient to take the medicine at different times.

In prescription two, none of the pharmacists referred the patient back to the doctor or refused to dispense but only one advised the patient to take the medicine at different times.

In prescription three, the outcome was the same as the other two mentioned above, except one pharmacist asked if the patient was suffering from hypertension. Four of them asked if the patient was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and four of them dispensed the medicine.

It was, therefore, concluded that the pharmacists' awareness about drug-drug interaction seems very poor and they are generally not well informed about the serious interactions caused. As well, they have poor knowledge in communication skills.

It is therefore 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.