Vol 10, Issue 4, 2017 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF IRAQI PHARMACISTS IN BAGHDAD COMMUNITY TOWARD ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS MONITORING SAMER IMAD MOHAMMED 1 *, AMNA FOUAD ABDUL AL-RAZAQ 2 1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq. 2 Directorate of Ninava Health, Ministry of Health, Ninava, Iraq. Email: drsamerimad@gmail.com Received: 14 December 2016, Revised and Accepted: 04 January 2016 ABSTRACT Objective: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can lead to many complications associated with the use of medications. In Iraq, where a wide range of medications misused widely due to different reasons, the Iraqi Pharmacovigilance (PV) program started out few years ago to collect information about adverse drugs reactions and since the success of this program depends on the effective participation of all medical staffs including pharmacists in this program. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and degree of awareness of Iraqi pharmacists in Baghdad community toward adverse drugs reactions monitoring and PV program. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey based on individual questionnaire that administered in English to a convenience sample of 150 pharmacists working in 3 colleges of pharmacy, 20 community pharmacies, and 3 hospitals situated in different areas of Baghdad which is the capital of Iraq. The questionnaire consists of three parts that collect demographic data on the participants and their knowledge, attitudes toward PV. Results: Although about 62% of pharmacists have observed ADRs in their practice, only half of the respondents have heard about the term PV, 48% were aware of the national PV program. Moreover, 47.33% of the respondents mentioned that ADRs associated with herbal products should not be reported. Although 79% of the respondents thought that reporting ADRs are a pharmacist’s duty nevertheless 82% of them thought that ADRs reporting in Iraq are not widely promoted by the relevant authority. The study showed high tendency for participation in and ADR monitoring program. Interestingly, 60% of respondents report that their workplace does not encourage them for reporting ADRs while 48% of respondents indicated that they do not have enough time for reporting ADRs and 38% of them declared their fearing of facing legal problem from that. Conclusion: Iraqi pharmacists although have a high tendency in participation in ADRs monitoring program but have a poor knowledge about PV practices; they lack understanding of the details about the national PV system and ADRs reporting process and may need more information on how ADRs reporting are performed. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitudes, Adverse drug reactions, Pharmacovigilance. INTRODUCTION Medicines have substantial benefits to human health; however, most times, adverse reactions or unwanted effects produced with their beneficial effect [1]. This adverse drug reaction (ADR) or unwanted effect simply can be defined as an injury caused by taking a medication [2]. This usually can lead to many complications associated with the use of medicines such as the increase in the duration of hospital stay [3] and hospital costs [4]. Moreover, ADRs can lead to death in about 2.9% of hospital admissions [5]. Although ADRs are preventable, still regarded as one the top 10 leading causes of mortality in many countries [6]. After the “thalidomide tragedy,” many countries have established drug monitoring systems (Pharmacovigilance [PV] system) for early detection and prevention of possible drug-related morbidity and mortality and to minimize the financial costs associated with preventable adverse events [7]. During the last decade, PV activities have evolved widely and the postmarketing surveillance (PV system) help many drug companies to frame the full benefit-risk profile of their drugs in the real world setting which is more effective than clinical trials that only help a company in initial reporting of safety profile [8]. The WHO establish education center in the Netherlands, to develop PV curricula for medical school to overcome the inefficiency of training and education of medical staffs regarding ADRs monitoring [9]. There are differences among countries in the occurrence of ADRs and other drug- related problems [10]. In Iraq, which is one of the third world countries, the dispensing of many medications is illegal, and many people stored medications in their houses in inappropriate storage conditions; furthermore, they use it most times incorrectly without any physician advice [11]. In one study that evaluate the use of analgesics by Iraqi people, the result showed a misuse of using these medications and most consumers have no information about the side effect, even more higher percentage of them do not adhere to doses prescribed [12]. The former two studies showed that the Iraqi people have a high affinity to confront ADRs as a result of their misuse of medications; so to decrease the impact of this dilemma, the Iraqi PV center has been established in the Directorate of technical affairs, Ministry of Health (MOH) to be responsible for the collection, and evaluation of information on pharmaceutical products marketed in Iraq, with particular reference to adverse reactions [13]. As the success of any PV system depends on the cooperation of all medical professions including pharmacists in reporting suspecting ADRs, especially to new drugs [14]. Many studies conclude that improving hospital and community pharmacist knowledge and experiences toward ADRs reporting can play a significant role in the prevention of ADRs in addition to improving other healthcare professionals’ knowledge about ADRs reporting [15]. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2017.v10i4.16595 Research Article