Pharmacist’s knowledge, practice and attitudes toward pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions reporting process

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of drug related morbidity and mortality. Pharmacovigilance is the science that plays an essential role in the reduction of ADRs, thus the evolution and growth of this science are critical for effective and safe clinical practice. OBJECTIVES: This study is considered the first study in the region to evaluate pharmacist's knowledge, practice and attitudes toward ADRs reporting after establishing the national ADRs reporting center in Jordan. METHOD: A cross sectional study was used to evaluate pharmacist knowledge and attitude toward ADRs reporting. A structured validated questionnaire was developed for this purpose and a total of 208 pharmacists were recruited to participate in this study. RESULTS: The majority of pharmacists have insufficient awareness and lack of knowledge about pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting. Also the rate of reporting of ADRs was extremely poor. Several factors were found to discourage pharmacists from reporting ADRs, which include inadequate information available from the patient, unavailability of pharmacist ADRs form when needed, unawareness of the existence of the national ADRs reporting system. Also pharmacists think that ADRs are unimportant or they did not know how to report them. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that pharmacists have insufficient knowledge about the concept of pharmacovigilance and spontaneous ADRs reporting. On the other hand, pharmacists had positive attitudes toward pharmacovigilance, despite their little experience with ADRs reporting. Educational programs are needed to increase pharmacist's role in the reporting process, and thus to have a positive impact on the overall patient caring process.