Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Perception of community pharmacists on abuse of psychotropic medications among the consumers

Kolawole O Alabi¹ , Falade Joshua², Akinsola I Akinwumi¹, David U Adje³, Olufunsho Awodele⁴

¹Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria; ²Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria; ³Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria; ⁴Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

For correspondence:- Kolawole Alabi Email: kolawolea@abuad.edu.ng Tel:+2348034285127

Accepted: 10 December 2022 Published: 31 December 2022

Citation: Alabi KO, Joshua F, Akinwumi AI, Adje DU, Awodele O. Perception of community pharmacists on abuse of psychotropic medications among the consumers. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(12):2721-2729 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v21i12.30

© 2022 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: Abuse of medications implies that the user is using them for reasons other than those indicated in the prescribing literature. Psychotropic medications are those capable of affecting the mind, emotions, and behavior of humans. This study sought to determine the perception of community pharmacists about the pattern of psychotropic medication abuse among their customers.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study carried out among community pharmacists in Surulere axis of Lagos State, Nigeria, by census sampling method using a structured questionnaire.
Results: Majority of the respondents (74.7%) were male and within ten years of practice experience (85.1%). About four-fifth (84.4%) of the respondents perceived that psychotropic medications were being abused by customers purchasing such medications from them. Caffeine-based analgesics ranked highest (85.1%) among the drugs perceived to be abused while dextromethorphan-containing cough syrup, sedative antihistamine, codeine-based analgesics, tramadol, oral decongestant, and benzodiazepines were perceived to be equally abused (84.4%). Male customers were perceived to abuse psychotropic medications more than their female counterparts and abuse of tramadol and codeine-based analgesics were specifically noted to be higher in customers younger than 26 years of age.
Conclusion: Consumer psychotropic medication abuse at community pharmacies was perceived to be significant in Lagos community pharmacies.

Keywords: Substance abuse, psychotropic medications, community pharmacies, Lagos