Prevalence and Perception of Pharmacists on Dispensing Prescription Only Medication without Prescription in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

Amom Tor-Anyiin, Aondoasee Gwa, Rose Okonkwo, Iorfa Tor-Anyiin and Akogwu Abuh
Additional contact information
Amom Tor-Anyiin: Medecins Sans Frontieres, Canada
Aondoasee Gwa: Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Nigeria
Rose Okonkwo: Principal Health Consulting Limited, Nigeria
Iorfa Tor-Anyiin: Federal Medical Center Makurdi, Nigeria
Akogwu Abuh: Nuffield Health Guildford Hospital, UK

European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 2020, vol. 2, issue 3

Abstract: Background: Currently in Nigeria, prescription only medicines are supposed to be dispensed only with a prescription. The study aimed to reveal the prevalence of prescription only medicine without a prescription and the perception of community pharmacist in Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria towards the phenomenon. Method: The study was carried out between February–April 2019 using simulated patient approach and administration of questionnaire on the pharmacists. Result: Forty pharmacies were surveyed and 100% (29) of the respondents were willing to dispense prescription only medicines without a prescription. Among the respondents, 93% (27) said they do see up to an estimated 30% of POMs without a prescription daily. While 19.2% (5) of the pharmacists do dispense POM without a prescription, 42.3% (11) said they do so depend on the level of education or prior exposure of the client to the medication. Only 38.5% (10) said they will not dispense a POM without a prescription. Most of the pharmacists, 93% (27) agreed that dispensing POM without with a prescription holds potentials for drug abuse, drug misuse, drug dependence with attendant economic consequences. Conclusion: A vast majority of practicing community pharmacists in Nigeria are willing and do dispense prescription-only medications without a valid prescription; for a variety of reasons. This is against existing Nigerian pharmacy laws and the national drug policy.

Keywords: dispensing; perception; prescription; prevalence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejmed/article/view/40323 Abstract page (text/html)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejmed/article/download/40323/8901 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epw:ejmed0:v:2:y:2020:i:3:id:40323

DOI: 10.24018/ejmed.2020.2.3.323

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences from European Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Support ().