Abstract
Introduction: Inevitable drug interactions are one of the most common mistakes in the process of patient treatment. These interactions may sometimes result in serious side effects in patients. The prevention from such errors are one of community health planning goals.
Methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was performed to assess pharmacists performance against drug interactions in 82 pharmacies in Hamadan city. A trained person with a prescription containing important drug interactions presented to the pharmacies. After delivering the prescription to the pharmacist, a questionnaire was used to assess the levels of pharmacists participation in drug consulting. Data were analysed using version 20.0 of SPSS software.
Results: of 82 studied pharmacies in Hamadan city, pharmacists were presented in 67 pharmacies (81.7%). Additionally, 27 pharmacists (40.3%) asked the patients reason for visiting a physician. Twenty two pharmacists (32.8%) paid attention to the drug interactions with warfarin. Only 16 (23.9%) pharmacists gave advice regarding the interactions of vitamin K-containing foods with warfarin. The trained person were consulted about prothrombin time and the international normalized ratio by only 16 pharmacists (23.9%). Fifteen pharmacists (22.4%) asked about bleeding symptoms. Sixty three pharmacists (94.0%) gave advice about the proper time of drug taking and the necessity of fasting before taking the drugs.
Conclusions: although the pharmacists had sufficient knowledge about drug interactions, they showed poor attention and their performance in relation to possible interactions was also relatively poor. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake measures to pay more attention to drug interactions especially those with higher importance.
Key words: drug interactions, pharmacists, drug consulting, Prescription, Iran
Key words: Key words: drug interactions, pharmacists, drug consulting, Prescription, Iran
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