Search

The use of herbal products is increasing in Turkey, as it is all over the world. Community pharmacists are of critical importance for public health in the use of herbal products. In this research, the behavior of community pharmacists working in Isparta province on herbal products was examined. The research was conducted with community pharmacists working in Isparta province center between 20.10.2022-20.03.2023. Survey forms were used in the research and descriptive statistics were shown with percentage and frequency values. According to the research results, 54.3% of pharmacists reported that they frequently sell herbal products. Pharmacists stated that they sell these products to support the immune system with a rate of 61.4%. It was observed that 51.4% of the herbal products in pharmacies were preferred for the pediatric patient groupIt was determined that 45.7% of pharmacists received information about herbal products from product sales representatives and 41.4% had not heard of the definition of phytopharmacovigilance before. In this research, 92.9% of pharmacists are concerned about the safety of herbal products, and 95.7% find the legal regulations regarding herbal products inadequate. As a result, community pharmacists should give correct advice to patients about herbal products and pharmacists should have strong knowledge on this subject. Vocational training should be planned so that pharmacists have up-to-date knowledge about herbal products. Legal regulations regarding herbal products should be made in more detail by the responsible authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study, economic and social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on pharmacy, veterinary and optician companies operating in health sector are examined. In the study, exploratory sequential mixed method design, which is among mixed research designs in which qualitative and quantitative research methods run together, is utilized. In quantitative dimension of study, descriptive scanning model is used, and in qualitative dimension, general scanning model is used. Quantitative research sample consisted of 300 firms determined by cluster sampling technique. Qualitative sample, on the other hand, consists of 11 firms that are selected using purposeful sampling among firms participating in quantitative dimension. Research data is obtained by using questionnaire forms applied on a voluntary basis and by face to face interview technique. According to findings obtained from research, companies that are subject to research operating in health sector are negatively affected economically during pandemic period. Sales and revenues increase by 50% or more, but there is no reduction in fixed operating expenses. Firms obey occupational health and safety measures to the maximum extent. Firms continue their services by maintaining their employment levels with the support and assistance they benefit. It is a necessary condition for companies to continue their health services to struggle pandemic. For this reason, providing industry-specific support and assistance is necessary and important for success in the struggle against the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased desire among individuals to live a comfortable life, to be healthy, beautiful and groomy with developing world order; allows cosmetics and dermocosmetics industry to rapidly develop and increases the demand for their use. In recent years, increased interest among people to natural products instead of synthetic chemicals in every issue, especially to herbal forms, led to an increase of phytocosmetics within the cosmetics sector. The plants, plant oils and extracts practiced with simple methods to stay young and become beautiful for centuries, have begun to take part in phytocosmetics products nowadays. As they are being preferred, their number and varities are increasing each day. Although not many scientific research is available regarding phytocosmetics products and most preferred plants in the industry, day by day increasing demand to these products attracts researchers' attention and directs them to research more on the issue. In our research, to contribute the areas of cosmetics, dermocosmetics and phytocosmetics; we aimed to identify the phytocosmetic products and plants within the composition of these products, present in the pharmacies of the Anatolian side of Istanbul. According to our research, ten most widely used plants are identified as; Butyrospermum parkii (118), Vitis vinifera (106), Helianthus annuus (103), Olea europaea (91), Glycine max (82), Rosmarinus officinalis (80), Simmondsia chinensis (76), Citrus aurantium var. dulcis (Citrus sinensis) (75), Aloe barbadensis (69), Citrus medica var. limonum (68). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the current work, we aimed to carry out a research on the evaluation of pharmacy technicians from the perspective of pharmacists in Eskişehir. Material and Methods: The pharmacists of this test were chosen by random sampling method and they were asked to answer the questionary. The data of this test was analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics 20 and Microsoft Excel programs in general and in subgroups, then those analysis were given in percentages and shown in graphs. Results: This survey revealed the expectation of pharmacists from their pharmacy technicians associated with their duties in the pharmacy and properties, education levels, professional experience, knowledge about medicines and pharmacy procedures. Conclusion: In this survey, similar results were obtained in general and in subgroups. Generally the most important part of pharmacy system for pharmacists is prescription and authorization system so they want pharmacy technicians to be most well-equipped in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this thesis, functions of brand personalities are evaluated separately in order to determine the brand personalities of the pharmacies located in the city center of Ankara. The material of this work consists of 329 survey forms which are applied to pharmacy beneficiaries residing in Ankara. According to the results of this research; beneficiaries describes their pharmacies as sincere, hardworking, honest, reliable, selfconfident, successful and kind which are the subcategories of brand personality. Besides, it is also observed that beneficiaries do not consider their pharmacies as unique or one and only (indispensable). There are remarkable points obtained as a result of this work. In terms of "talent" and "appearance"; pharmacies in shopping centers are meaningfully different from neighborhood pharmacies, pharmacies over an avenue and pharmacies close to the source of prescription. In addition to this; pharmacies' brand personalities are described diversely by beneficiaries according to their demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income level, education and profession. In conclusion; pharmacies do have brand personalities, although they are small businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmaceutics, which is an indispensable addition to medical services for the treatment of disease, has turned into a profession that requires school education rather than being a craft branch barely in the nineteenth century. Therewithal, the teaching and performing of the pharmaceutics had experienced many changes. Civilian pharmacies began to operate in Istanbul in 1830, and in provincial cities in the second half of the nineteenth century. The medicine trade in the Ottoman cities became operational in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This paper tries to examine pharmacies, pharmacists and medicine dealers in one of the most prominent provincial towns in the Ottoman Empire, namely Bursa, in the framework of the development of medical activities in the of modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: This study aims to determine, the accessibility of physically disabled persons to community pharmacy. Other objectives are understanding the sensitivity of pharmacists to disability and pharmacists' desire to change. METHOD: A web survey is used to collect the data. Survey questions are prepared by the researchers which includes demographic information and 14 open and/or closed ended questions related to pharmacy size, location, suitability of pharmacy placement and pharmacists knowledge on disabled laws and etc. In 2011 a priliminary face to face survey had been performed in Kayisdagi-Atasehir region. Then in 2012 wider spread survey was performed via web, through all pharmacies of Istanbul and the data of web survey was collected in two months at January-March, 2012. RESULTS: The survey applied to community pharmacists; over 50% of the pharmacists have declared that their pharmacies are not suitable for access by disabled people. 91% of pharmacies' placement area found to be satisfactory as meter square. Pharmacists believe that necessary arrangements are needed and the responsibility belongs to the government agencies. However, only 41% of pharmacists are aware of the legal arrangements for disabled citizens. 27% of community pharmacists stated that, their pharmacies have fully compatible and 54% of them pointed out that their pharmacy have some deficiencies in habitat. CONCLUSION: It has been found that community pharmacies are partly accesible for phsically disabled people. This condition is not only pharmacy related, but also caused by many architectural problems in the neighbourhood of pharmacy. It appears that, presence of legislations could not solve the architectural problems itself. Primarily standard measurements should be implemented by government authorities. However, legislation implementions may not enough for and education is needed to improve the thoughts and behaviours of public and health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to assess Turkish community pharmacists' points of view about pharmaceutical care practice in Turkey. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted to community pharmacists who attended "clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care continuing education programs" organized by Turkish Pharmacists' Association Academy (n=385) between 2003 and 2005. Majority of the pharmacists (86.8%) were willing to provide pharmaceutical care services and 78.9% considered these services as pharmacists' duty. Participants listed the major barriers to conduct pharmaceutical care practice as follows: "lack of knowledge of drugs and disease states; lack of technical knowledge of how to provide pharmaceutical care practice; lack of communication with physicians and stationary workload". Our study indicated that pharmacists were willing to provide pharmaceutical care services and most of them considered lack of clinical knowledge as the major obstruct for providing the services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to document the management of dyspepsia by community pharmacies in two major cities of Pakistan; Islamabad (national capital) and Rawalpindi (twin city). A comparative, cross-sectional study was designed to document the management of dyspepsia including history taking and provision of advice at 238 randomly selected pharmacies through simulated patient visits in twin cities of Pakistan. Kruskal-Wallis test and Man-Whitney test (p ≤ 0.05) were used to compare management of dyspepsia by the dispensers working at community pharmacies handled by different provider types in the two cities. The simulated patients were dealt by a pharmacy salesperson in 75.6% (n= 180) of visits. Medication was dispensed in 73.5% (n= 175) of the visits, while in 10.9% (n= 26) of the cases the customer was referred directly to a physician. No significant difference at (p ≤ 0.05) was observed among history taking and advice provision in treatment of dyspepsia by the dispensers working at community pharmacies handled by different provider types and situated at different settings in the two cities. This study highlighted poor case management and dispensing practices of dyspepsia at community pharmacies in Pakistan. Absence of qualified people, lack of provision of advice and lack of professionalism by the dispensers are the main reasons for the poor quality of services at community pharmacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, pharmacies which is in Turkey in 2012, the Ministry of Health licensed herbal medicines is examined and the active compound in the formulation of a standardized extract of herbal drug or drug preparation are discussed in the preparations. The plant-derived pure compounds (atropine, morphine, ephedrine, etc.) obtained by chemical processes are not herbal medicines. Therefore excluded from this study. In this context, the content of herbal medicines plants used parts, the active compounds, uses of effects are investigated. Examined these plants are Aesculus hippocastanum L., Amygdalus communis L., Allium sativum L., Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze (Thea sinensis L.), Capsicum annuum L., Cassia acutifolia Del. (C. angustifolia Vahl.), Centella asiatica L., Cimicifuga racemosa L., Cola nitida (Vent.) Schott & Endl., Eucalyptus globulus Labill., Foeniculum vulgare Miller, Ginkgo biloba L., Hamamelis virginiana L., Harpagophytum procumbens DC, Hedera helix L., Lavandula angustifolia Miller, Mentha piperita L., Passiflora incarnata L., Pelargonium sidoides DC., Pinus brutia Tenn., Populus sp., Rheum officinale Baill., Ricinus communis L., Serenoa repens (W. Bart.) Small, Silybum marianum L., Thymus vulgaris L., Triticum aestivum L., Valeriana officinalis L, Vitex agnus-castus L., Vitis vinifera L., Zingiber officinale (Roscoe). As a result, 44 herbal medicines licensed from The Ministry of Health were determined in the pharmacies of Turkey in 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency with which antibiotics were sold without a prescription, to examine factors related to such practices and to determine the appropriateness of antibiotics sold with a prescription in Sanliurfa city center in Turkey. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was carried out between September 6 and December 15, 2010, on patients who visited the pharmacies to ask for antibiotics with or without prescription. To determine the research sample the cluster sampling method was used and from 186 pharmacies, 25 pharmacies were selected at random. The pharmacies were visited and asked to complete a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: 373 patients obtained antibiotics from pharmacies. The patients who received antibiotics by prescription comprised 98.6% (n=359) of all patients. A total 36 different antibiotics had been prescribed to the patients. Inappropriate prescription of antibiotics was documented in 63.7%. The most-prescribed antibiotic was co-amoxiclav (28.8%). The rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions with the diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infection (77.8%) was highest, while the rate was lowest with the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (23.3%) (χ2: 68.8, P<0.001). The rate of inappropriate prescribed antibiotics in state hospitals (53.7%) was lower than the rate in primary health care centers (72.1%) and private hospitals and clinics (64.7%) (χ2: 10.4, P=0.05). There was no diagnosis of infection in 17 (4.7%) patients with prescriptions. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the use of antibiotics without prescription was low, while the rate of inappropriate antibiotic use was high in Sanliurfa. The use of antibiotics without prescription can potentially be prevented through interventions in the healthcare system. To prevent inappropriate antibiotic prescription, improvements to physicians' education must be implemented, even after graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of electronic information resources (EIR) on drugs are increasing in parallel to the increasing number and type of drugs on the market. However, in Turkey, we did not encounter any study investigating the prevalance and the use of electronic information resources in drug market. Thus, the aim of our study was to determine the purpose of using drug related EIR and the benefits provided by this process. Our study was performed with 102 pharmacists in the districts of Atasehir, Kadiköy, Kartal, Pendik, Samandira, Umraniye and Uskudar, who accepted to participate in the present study. The questioneer consisted of questions about their demographic characteristics, level of knowledge about EIR and the frequency of their use of EIR. All of the pharmacist who participated in the study were using at least one EIR and %51 were using it for 6-10 years. Ninety nine percent of pharmacists (n = 101) reported that they did not receive any training on electronic information resources during their years in the school of Pharmacy. The pharmacist reported that they were using EIR mostly to give information to their patients. According to the present study, in the pharmacies EIR is used widely but not efficiently. We believe that the education programs in pharmacy schools should include lectures about the EIR on drugs and postgraduate training programs can be organized in cooperation with the marketing companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many patients consult the pharmacists about their illness as well as the drugs they use; thus, it is essential to provide a good pharmacy practice and thus promote rational use of medicines. In the last century pharmacy profession consisted of compounding and dispensing medicines. As the compounding functions were significantly reduced recently, a new role was developed for the profession. The role of today's pharmacists needs to be expanded to include pharmaceutical care concepts, turning the pharmacist into a healthcare professional rather than a shopkeeper in a commercial enterprise. The mission of the pharmacy practice must be to provide medication as well as other health care products and services, and to help people and the society to make the best use of them. It also involves identifying, resolving and preventing drug-related problems, as well as encouraging proper use of medications, and general health promotion and education, thus improving clinical outcome of the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the competency level of mothers while preparing and scaling oral powder antibiotics (OPA) for their childrens's use. Material and Method: This descriptive study was carried out on 99 mothers while they bought prescribed OPA for their children from a pharmacy in Istanbul. The method of OPA preparation of each mother was observed. The amount of the prepared suspension was measured with 10 ml glass pipettes. Measured doses in the range of ± 1 ml of the prescribed dose were accepted as the correct dose. Results: Twenty-seven point three percent of the mothers' measurements were underscaled and 2% of their measurements were overscaled compared to the required amounts (p<0.001). High educational status and using a syringe for scaling was found to be related with a correct dose measurement of OPA. Consclusion: We conclude that mothers who participated in this study were not able to prepare OPA appropriately, with less than or over the required dose. We suggest that physicians should encourage mothers to use syringes for accurate measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compounded drugs in pharmacies constitute negligible rate in the whole drug utilization. However, compounded drugs sometimes do not meet required standards and unfortunately their pharmaceutical specifications are not regularly controlled. In the present study, the amount of nitroglycerin active ingredient was measured in 23 nitroglycerin (0.4%) ointment samples prepared in 23 community pharmacies. In addition to the ingredient, the packaging and labeling were also evaluated. Our findings showed that 0.4% nitroglycerin ointment was prepared in only 4% of the pharmacies admitted. None of the compounded drugs met the acceptable (0.36-0.44%) range for 0.4% nitroglycerin content. Furthermore, nine of them were below the measurable value (<0.008%). The highest concentration of the compounded drugs was found 0.24%. Only three samples met the required active ingredient amount in terms of nitroglycerin and all of them were the pharmaceutical preparations of Rectogesic® with different serial numbers. Moreover, preparations compounded in the pharmacies lacked a proper packaging and labeling. We may conclude that there is a difficulty in accessing the above mentioned medication since the ointment was available in only 4% of the pharmacies and none of the preparations contained enough active ingredient. Only a few had proper package and adequate labeling. It seems that a regular auditing needs to be conducted for compounded drugs in the pharmacies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lidocaine belongs to class 1-B antiarrhythmic agents and is primarily used in the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias. This agent is also used in pharmaceutical cocktails as a pain reliever for conditions such as aphthous stomatitis and dyspepsia. Regardless of its efficacy, it is necessary to consider the safety of lidocaine in pharmaceutical cocktails. Some conditions can alter its pharmacokinetics, and the absorption of lidocaine can increase significantly. Toxic levels of lidocaine in the blood can cause severe toxic symptoms, especially in the central nervous system and the cardiac system. Neurotoxic symptoms such as respiratory depression, convulsion, and coma appear at mild toxicity but cardiotoxic symptoms appear in severe toxicity. These devastating effects of lidocaine toxicity are a warning for the health care providers regarding the irrational usage of this agent in oral pharmaceutical cocktails, especially community pharmacists who are not aware of the toxic effects of lidocaine ingestion, and hence, they should be advised to avoid preparing oral pharmaceutical cocktails using lidocaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]