ArticleSouth African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care2024
The misuse of codeine containing medicines: Perceptions and behaviours of qualified pharmacy professionals.
Article in South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundPharmacy professionals working in community pharmacies frequently provide pharmacist-initiated therapy, including codeine-containing medicines. Codeine is an opioid with great potential for misuse, adding to the global opioid epidemic burden. Professional pharmacy personnel are the first intervention point in relation to management of codeine use. This study highlights the importance of pharmacy professionals' perceptions and behaviours in combatting the opioid epidemic.
methodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Simple random sampling included pharmacy professionals in the metropolitan city of Johannesburg. An electronic questionnaire was distributed via e-mail and data analysed descriptively.
resultsFindings indicate that pharmacy personnel routinely ask patients about codeine use (n = 48; 53.9%), avoid dispensing over-the-counter (OTC) codeine as an initial treatment (n = 61; 69%) and express confidence to identify and manage codeine misuse (n = 69; 77.5%). Despite this, increased patient demands for OTC codeine (n = 69; 77.5%) were concerning, highlighting the ease of availability from internet sources (n = 76; 85.4%) and multiple pharmacies (n = 84; 94.4%). Apprehension about the lack of patient awareness on adverse health consequences (n = 66; 74.2%) and the risk of codeine dependence (n = 79; 88.8%) was expressed.
conclusionGrowing concern regarding availability and accessibility of codeine-containing medicines within the community pharmacy sector is highlighted. Adverse health consequences of codeine misuse and dependence are not understood by customers and the ineffective information provided by pharmacy personnel was highlighted as a concern.Contribution: The results of this study give insight to the influence of dispensing personnel's attitude towards the growing challenges with respect to codeine containing medication abuse.
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