Abstract
Objectives. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the drug dispensing activity of analgesic opioids in pharmacies. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in an observational and retrospective manner, based on a questionnaire distributed in different pharmacies across Romania. Results. The dispensing activity of opioid analgesics is conducted in 71 out of the 100 pharmacies that have received the questionnaire. These pharmacies are located in 12 out of the 41 counties, mostly in the urban area and 96% of them are community pharmacies. The most prescribed and dispensed pharmaceutical forms are solid forms, the injectable products and transdermic systems being dispensed in a high percentage, up to 40% respectively, only in 25% of the questioned pharmacies. The average time spent by a pharmacist for the entire activity of dispensing an opioid analgesic prescribed by a doctor was estimated at 17.82± 0.58 minutes. Conclusions. The activity regarding opioid analgesics in the community pharmacy is limited by the low rentability, high costs and time consumption. The results of the study impose a further analysis on the impact that this service has upon public health, in order to this activity be sustained by the national health insurance system. Measures must be implemented to ensure that patients from rural or unprivileged areas are able to get their analgesics from the nearest community pharmacy constantly.
Highlights
Self-medication, according to the dictionary definition, Pain is the most frequent symptom that the patients claim when going to see a doctor
Opioid analgesics are under high scrutiny [9,10,11]
100 pharmacists have responded to this questionnaire, 85 of them from urban area and the other 15 from rural area
Summary
Self-medication, according to the dictionary definition, Pain is the most frequent symptom that the patients claim when going to see a doctor. It is the main symptom for 50% of the patients diagnosed with cancer, especially in the advanced forms [1,2,3,4]. The legal provisions which regulate the activities regarding this type of medication can be found in the Law No 339/2015 [9]. Prescribing this type of medication can only be done on special and secured documents, in hospitals. The physician is allowed to hand out a new prescription for the same patient before the 30 days have expired if during the treatment the patient’s
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