Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therpeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2019 Aug;15(8):943-948. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.01.016. Epub 2019 Jan 30.
There has been a trend in the past five years in Jordan for ophthalmic anticholinergic preparations to be misused or abused. This is done mainly to experience mental altering effects such as mood changes, euphoria or hallucinations. Such products are mostly obtained from community pharmacies without a prescription.
This study aimed to observe the requests of ophthalmic preparations in community pharmacies in Amman, Jordan, and evaluating the most popular and frequently requested ophthalmic drops suspected of abuse. Also, it aimed to describe the current methods that Jordanian community pharmacists use to manage such requests.
A prospective cross-sectional observational study was conducted between November 2016 and January 2017 at sixteen different community pharmacies in Amman. All ophthalmic products requested were observed during this period.
A total of 140 ophthalmic product requests for 130 customers were observed. Dry eye was the most common complaint for which the customer requested the medication (n = 30, 23.1%) and direct self-medication (ie-requesting the product by name), was the most frequent method of purchase (n = 63, 48.5%). In 19 cases (14.6%), product requests were suspected to be for non-medical (ie-abuse) purposes. Most of the suspected cases were for Pentolate (n = 11, 57.9%), whereas 7 were for Prisoline (36.8%) and 1 for Naphcon-A (5.3%). The majority of observed cases were for products requested without a prescription (n = 16, 84.2%), and in 12 cases out of which, sale was refused (63.2%).
More effort and enforcement of pharmacy regulation for safe dispensing is needed to reduce the abuse of ophthalmic products. Educating pharmacists and ophthalmologists would help raise awareness and control the type of drug abuse.
在过去五年中，约旦出现了一种将眼科抗胆碱能制剂滥用以获得精神改变效果（如情绪变化、欣快或幻觉）的趋势。这些产品大多未经处方从社区药店获得。
本研究旨在观察约旦安曼社区药店对眼科制剂的需求，并评估最受欢迎和经常被滥用的疑似眼科滴剂。还旨在描述约旦社区药剂师目前用于管理此类需求的方法。
2016 年 11 月至 2017 年 1 月期间在安曼的 16 家不同社区药店进行了一项前瞻性横断面观察性研究。在此期间观察了所有请求的眼科产品。
共观察到 130 名顾客对 140 种眼科产品的请求。干眼症是患者最常见的诉求（n=30，23.1%），直接自我用药（即按名称要求用药）是最常见的购买方式（n=63，48.5%）。在 19 例（14.6%）中，产品请求疑似用于非医疗（即滥用）目的。疑似病例大多为戊托品（n=11，57.9%），而普里索林为 7 例（36.8%），萘扑维 1 例（5.3%）。大多数观察到的病例是为未经处方要求的产品（n=16，84.2%），其中 12 例被拒绝销售（63.2%）。
需要加强药剂师对安全配药的监管，以减少眼科产品的滥用。教育药剂师和眼科医生将有助于提高认识并控制药物滥用的类型。
