Abstract
Author(s): Binu KM, Nimmy N Johnand Geo P Varghese
A drug-related problem (DRP) is defined as an event or circumstance that actually or potentially interferes with desired health outcomes. DRPs can lead to ineffective pharmacotherapy and may cause drug-related morbidity and mortality. Most DRPs are avoidable and community pharmacies are assuming an active role in preventing and solving DRPs.Patients who visited two-community pharmacy set up (branches of chain pharmacy) with prescriptions were included in the study after obtaining the consent. The objective of this study was to demonstrate that community pharmacists are willing and able to detect, solve and document DRPs in every day routine and also to categorize and analyze the different types of DRPs. The study was carried out for a period of nine months. 126 patients were selected from the two community pharmacies (61 from CP1and 65 from CP2).The patient’s data werecollected with the help of a structured data entry format after getting their consent. Majority of the study population were from the late adulthood group (42.86%) and from young old group (22.22%). The commonly identified drug related problems in both community pharmacy 1 and 2 were drug interactions (76.84%) and wrong frequency (12.63%), over dose (4.21%), under dose (3.16%), therapeutic duplication (3.16%). The DRPs identified were categorized according to the PCNE classification of DRPs. The classification reveals that the problems were primarily categorized as dosing problems(20%),drug dosing problems (3.16%), and majority of interactions (76.84%). The above fact reveals that a pharmaceutical care program will definitely improve the outcomes of the therapy.