Abdu-Aguye Samirah N, Shehu Aishatu, Ahmad Ubaidullah I
MClinPharm. Lecturer. Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Practice, Ahmadu Bello University. Zaria (Nigeria).
MSc Pharmacology. Lecturer. Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Ahmadu Bello University. Zaria (Nigeria).
Pharm Pract (Granada). 2017 Jan-Mar;15(1):873. doi: 10.18549/PharmPract.2017.01.873. Epub 2017 Mar 15.
This work aimed to describe attitudes and practices of both community pharmacies and patent and proprietary medicine vendor (PPMV) outlets towards over-the-counter (OTC) analgesic use for musculoskeletal pain states within Zaria, Nigeria.
The study was carried out in 2 phases from May to August 2016. Phase one was a cross-sectional survey of 40 retail drug outlets (10 community pharmacies and 30 PPMVs). A simulated patient scenario of a young adult male complaining of acute onset back pain was used to collect data on the type and quality of analgesic recommended, duration of consultation, as well as nature of information provided during the drug dispensing process. The second phase involved semi structured interviews with 7 drug vendors (4 pharmacists and 3 patent medicine vendors). The interviewees were asked questions to assess their knowledge of analgesics as well as what type of analgesic they would recommend in three hypothetical patient scenarios.
A wide variety of therapeutic agents were recommended for the simulated patient. Majority of these drugs were oral analgesics and contained NSAIDS either alone or in combination. Less than half of both patent medicine outlets and pharmacies (26.7% and 40% respectively) provided the simulated patient with information on duration of therapy, and asked the patient questions about their past medical and medication history (30% and 33.3% respectively). All analgesics purchased from the pharmacies were registered with the Nigerian drug regulatory agency and had expiry dates compared to only 66.7% and 90% of those bought from patent medicine outlets. Interviewed drug vendors admitted to obtaining a large amount of their knowledge on analgesics from drug information leaflets and prior learning. They also showed some knowledge deficits when questioned on side effects of analgesics and appropriate drug selection in the hypothetical scenarios.
There are problems with both the OTC analgesics recommended, and the counselling provided for these medicines by drug vendors within the Zaria community. While both pharmacies and patent medicine outlets had shortcomings in several of the areas assessed by the simulated patient, the pharmacies performed better.
本研究旨在描述尼日利亚扎里亚地区社区药房和专利及成药销售点（PPMV）对用于肌肉骨骼疼痛状态的非处方（OTC）镇痛药的态度和做法。
该研究于2016年5月至8月分两个阶段进行。第一阶段是对40家零售药店（10家社区药房和30家PPMV）的横断面调查。采用一名年轻成年男性抱怨急性背痛的模拟患者场景，收集有关推荐镇痛药的类型和质量、咨询时长以及配药过程中提供的信息性质的数据。第二阶段涉及对7名药品销售人员（4名药剂师和3名成药销售人员）进行半结构化访谈。向受访者提问，以评估他们对镇痛药的了解程度以及在三种假设患者场景中会推荐何种类型的镇痛药。
针对模拟患者推荐了多种治疗药物。这些药物大多为口服镇痛药，单独或联合含有非甾体抗炎药（NSAIDS）。成药销售点和药房中均不到一半（分别为26.7%和40%）向模拟患者提供了治疗疗程信息，并询问患者过去的病史和用药史（分别为30%和33.3%）。从药房购买的所有镇痛药均在尼日利亚药品监管机构注册并有有效期，而成药销售点购买的镇痛药只有66.7%和90%符合此情况。接受访谈的药品销售人员承认，他们关于镇痛药的大量知识来自药品信息传单和先前的学习。在假设场景中被问及镇痛药的副作用和适当的药物选择时，他们也表现出一些知识欠缺。
扎里亚社区推荐的非处方镇痛药以及药品销售人员为这些药物提供的咨询均存在问题。虽然药房和成药销售点在模拟患者评估的几个方面都有不足，但药房表现更好。
