Evaluating the Causes of Non-Standard Prescription and Drug Use in Iran and Its Improvement Strategies from the Viewpoint of Pharmacy Students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Background and Objectives : Irrational drug prescription and consumption lead to numerous undesirable consequences. Physicians and pharmacists have critical roles in directing the drug therapy culture to proper way and destination. In this study, causes of non-standard prescription and drug use in Iran and its improvement strategies from the viewpoint of Tabriz pharmacy students were evaluated in 2015-2016.

Material and Methods: To perform this cross-sectional quantitative-qualitative study, a questionnaire was designed in six domains (role of pharmacists, physicians, patients, economy, management and supervision, pharmaceutical industry) and completed by the students. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was determined by Cronbach’s Alpha method (Alpha=0.832).

Results: The students declared that the most important causes of irrational drug prescription and consumption were patients’ tendency to self-medication (3.49±0.63), physician based health system and inadequate collaboration between physicians with pharmacists and other medical team members (3.41±0.71) and low level of knowledge of patients about the risks of drug misuse (3.39±0.62). Also, among the all domains, the importance of appropriate management and supervision was greater than other items.

Conclusion: Inadequate knowledge of the society about proper use of medications, tendency to self-medication, inadequate collaboration between physicians with other health system members, low supervision of related management and supervisory organizations are the main causes of irrational drug prescription and consumption in the country. Therefore, increasing public awareness level, improving educational programs and collaboration between the treatment team members, reducing the economic problems of pharmacies and improving the supervision of relevant organizations on medical group is absolutely necessary.