Abstract
BACKGROUND: Drug related problems can be defined as any event or circumstance involving the drug treatment, which actually or potentially interferes with the patient in achieving an optimum outcome of medical care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective, observational and interventional study was carried out in the general medicine department of a tertiary care hospital. A total of 250 subjects admitted or treated between January-2015 to June-2015 were included in the study according to the study criteria. Patient data and prescription details were recorded and analyzed accordingly. Drug related problems (DRPs) were identified, patients were counseled about drug related problems and suitable clinical pharmacist recommendations were suggested to the clinical team in an attempt to prevent and/or resolve drug-related problems. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: During the study period, a total of 250 patients were analyzed and found 154 DRPs in 52 patients. The most common DRP was found to be drug-drug interactions, 29 (55.79%), and most of them were moderately significant. The most common drug related problems was found to be drug interactions(55.79%)followed by adverse drug reaction(17.30%),and failure to receive drugs(13.46%), On identification of the DRPs necessary interventions were made in which frequently recommended intervention was drug duration change(28.8%), mostly for moderately significant interactions, followed by drug schedule and frequency change (23.07%)for ADR and major drug-drug interactions, then drug discontinuation(19.23%) for drugs prescribed for no indication, then drug addiction(11.53%). The acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendation was high 28.84% and the remaining 55.76% were not accepted. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that clinical pharmacist interventions were successful in identifying and rectifying the different types of drug related problems. Thus, the Clinical pharmacists function as catalysts in the multidisciplinary team highlighting the task of making a holistic assessment of drug therapy.
