ASSESSMENT OF PHARMACISTS' AND PATIENTS' KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS IRRATIONAL USE OF CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE-CLIDINIUM BROMIDE COMBINATION IN KHARTOUM STATE

Malik Suliman Mohamed*, Ahazeej Hassan Hamid and Bashier Osman

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of community pharmacists in controlling Chlordiazepoxide-Clidinium bromide (CC) dispensing and to assess the potential of irrational use of this combination product. Self-administered questionnaire was used as the study tool and distributed among 200 community pharmacist and 200 CC users. The majority of pharmacists [176/200 (88%)] were shown to dispense CC as OTC. Although the vast majority of respondent pharmacists [192/200 (96%)] mentioned frequent dispensing of CC for certain patients without prescription, but [196/200 (98%)] revealed no patient counseling regarding the presence of concomitant diseases and/or the use of other medications before dispensing CC. Concerning the pharmacist's knowledge about CC, only [60/200 (29.7%)] correctly mentioned the chemical group to which chlordiazepoxide belonged. Sedation was the most side effect of CC that reported by [114/200 (57%)] of pharmacist, followed by addiction [50/200 (25%)], constipation [48/200 (24%)] and tolerance [18 (9%)]. Regarding patients, most of them [141/200 (70.5%) reported purchasing of CC as OTC with the vast majority of them [195/200 (97.5%)] mentioned continued use beyond the prescribed course. The majority of patients announced the use of CC for 4-6 years. Only six (3%) women had used CC during pregnancy with three (50%) of them been aborted their pregnancies, two (33%) delivered children with thalidomide-like deformities and one (17%) had no problem.

Keywords: Chlordiazepoxide, Clidinium bromide, prescription, dispensing, patient counseling.