Adverse Drug Reaction

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are unintended, harmful responses to medications at normal therapeutic doses causing significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Effective pharmacovigilance (PV) is essential for detecting, assessing and preventing ADR. Reporting of ADRs by healthcare professionals is vital for the success of pharmacovigilance. Community Pharmacists play a key role in ADR reporting but underreporting remains a serious issue. This study focuses on assessing theknowledge, attitude and practice of ADR reporting among community pharmacists in Benin City. OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice of community pharmacists in adverse drug reactions reporting. METHODS: After obtaining ethical approval from the Faculty of Pharmacy Ethics Committee, a cross sectional study was employed. The study employed the use of a structured questionnaire as the major instrument of data collection. The questionnaire was carefully developed to address the objectives of the study and distributed to licensed community pharmacists. The data obtained was analyzed using the software, SPSS version 29. RESULTS: From the study conducted, a total of 184 community pharmacists participated, of which 65.4% were males while 34.6% were females. The result showed an encouraging awareness levels ofcommunity pharmacists to pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting practices. Almost all respondents (98.9%) acknowledged that ADRs should be reported by community pharmacists and recognized the importance of such reporting for patient safety. Poor knowledge about drug-induced diseases was evident in only 11% of participants while 52% demonstrated good knowledge. Attitudes were primarily positive (78%) and practices vi were categorized as good for 7%, fair for 27% and poor for 66% of pharmacists. The top five reported barriers to ADR reporting were unavailability of ADR forms (27%), uncertainty about causality (13.7%), lack of time/workload (12.3%), no rewards for reporting (9.7%), and complexity of the reporting form (8.7%). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study revealed that community pharmacists in Benin City had an encouraging awareness level to pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting practices, a good knowledge of drug-induced diseases, and demonstrated a positive attitude towards ADR reporting but consistent ADR reporting was still below expectations. Thus, there is poor reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by community pharmacists in Benin City

BACKGROUND: Drug Therapy Problems (DTPs) are a major global public health concern, contributing significantly to preventable morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs, particularly
in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria. Community pharmacists, as the most accessible healthcare providers, are pivotal in addressing DTPs, which range from inappropriate prescribing and dosing errors to patient non-adherence. However, the prevalence and specific characteristics of DTPs encountered in Nigerian
community practice are often underreported and undocumented, creating a critical knowledge
gap that hinders targeted intervention development. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the Drug Therapy Problems (DTPs) encountered by community pharmacists in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to
determine the prevalence and classes of DTPs using Cipolle’s classification and to explore
factors associated with their occurrence in community pharmacy practice. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among a calculated sample of 169 community pharmacists in five local government areas of Benin City. Data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire focused on pharmacist demographics and the frequency of DTPs experienced over a three-month period, classified according to the Cipolle–Strand–Morley model. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 30, employing descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages) and Chi-square tests to assess associations, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Out of 169 pharmacist respondents, the majority were male (55.6%) and relatively
young, aged 30–39 years (34.3%), with Pharm.D being the highest qualification (47.3%). The
study confirmed a high occurrence of DTPs. The most frequently encountered DTPs were
Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) (49.1% reported often/always), Dosage too high (46.1%
reported often/always), Ineffective drug therapy (41.4% reported often/always), and Non- adherence to medication regimen (39.1% reported often/always). Chi-square analysis showed no
statistically significant association between demographic factors (gender, age, years of
experience, qualification, or ownership) and the overall occurrence of DTPs (p > 0.05) although
descriptive trends indicated that younger pharmacists (20–39 years), those with less than 10
years of experience, and Pharm.D holders reported higher DTP rates. CONCLUSION: Drug therapy problems are highly prevalent in community pharmacy practice in
Benin City, with issues related to dosage errors, adverse reactions, and patient non-adherence
being the most dominant. This high prevalence necessitates the urgent adoption of structured
pharmaceutical care documentation systems, enhanced patient counselling, and institutionalized
collaboration between community pharmacists and prescribers to mitigate medication-related
harm and optimize patient outcomes