AN ATTITUDE & KNOWLEDGE OF PHARMACISTS TOWARDS PHARMACOVIGILANCE & ADR REPORTING AND BARRIERS - A CURRENT SCENARIO IN TAMILNADU

Background: An adverse drug reaction (ADR) is associate degree injury caused by taking a medicine. The Study entitled “An Attitude & Knowledge of pharmacists towards pharmacovigilance & Adr reporting and barriers in current scenario; in Tamilnadu” was designed to assess the awareness of Pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting. Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study involving registered community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists to evaluate the knowledge, perception and practice of pharmacovigilance which was conducted by face to face questionnaire over a period of 6 month duration included a total 274 (78%) participants out of 350. Results: Out of the total participants 222(81.02%) had fair knowledge about ADR, 79(28.83%) had fair knowledge, about pharmacovigilance. 68 (25.09%) of participants were aware of National Pharmacovigilance Programme in India, 41 (14.96%) of participants knew how to report an ADR and 112(40.87%) of participants knew when and what to be report as ADR. 245(84.41%) of pharmacists believed that the ADR reporting should be mandatory for pharmacists. Among the participants 78(28.46%) of pharmacists only had facility for ADR reporting. 212(77.37%) of participants unaware of excistence of national adr reporting system. Conclusion: This survey on pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting among pharmacists in Tamilnadu suggests that the pharmacist may lack in-depth understanding of the facts about ADR reporting and may need more information on the National Pharmacovigilance System and ADR reporting process. Since there is a need of educational programs about ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance in the pharmacy