In February
2006, there was a renewed effort to encourage reporting of adverse
drug reactions (ADRs) in Jamaica. It involved renaming the process
the “PharmWatch” programme and revising the reporting form.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess the attitudes
of community pharmacists to ADR reporting and to assess their
utilization of the PharmWatch programme.
Methods: The survey was conducted in January 2007, involving 102
community pharmacists islandwide. A questionnaire was designed
to assess their attitudes towards ADR reporting, their awareness
of the PharmWatch programme and also to collate number of ADRs
through recall. Pharmacists were then followed prospectively to
collect ADRs occurring over the next three months using the PharmWatch
form.
Results: Although most of the pharmacists involved in the survey
had more than five years of experience, the majority (67%) were
not aware of the PharmWatch programme; however, 86% of the responding
pharmacists indicated that they accepted that ADR reporting was
a professional responsibility. They identified “reaction already
known”, “more information needed about reporting ADRs” and “lack
of time” as key factors that would cause non-reporting. One hundred
and twenty eight retrospective ADRs were collected; none were
reported to the Ministry of Health directly, while two were reported
to the respective drug companies. A three month prospective follow-up
with pharmacists yielded 45 reports. The most common ADR reports
among both the retrospective and prospective data were associated
with anti-infectives.
Conclusions: The results suggest that awareness of the PharmWatch
programme is not adequate to facilitate active participation in
ADR reporting. More proactive interventions, such as continuous
training and encouragement in the use of ADR reporting should
be considered.
