Knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance among community pharmacists in Delhi, India

Background: Lack of knowledge of Pharmacovigilance (PhV) and Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) reporting culture among the prescribers have been identified as major factors for under reporting of ADRs. In an attempt to increase the reporting many countries have allowed pharmacists to report ADRs. This study was planned to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of PhV among community pharmacist in Delhi, India.Methods: Cross sectional, questionnaire based study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of PhV among 200 community pharmacists of Delhi (west Delhi) India.Results: Majority (74%) of the respondents felt that ADR reporting is necessary but only 9% were aware of existing PhV Program of India. Only 5% of pharmacists knew about elements of PhV. Forty percent (40%) of pharmacists did not know where to report ADRs and 26% felt that there is no need to report ADRs. Significant number (77%) of pharmacists felt that ADRs reporting will damage their image. 96% never try to find ADRs and in case if they get ADRs from patients, majority (95%) of them never report to anybody. Almost all (96%) of respondents cited busy schedule as the main reason for non-reporting and 86% said that it will be very convenient if ADRs are collected by someone from them.Conclusions: Community pharmacists had positive attitude towards ADRs reporting but their knowledge and practice regarding PhV need to be improved. There is a need of regular training to increase their role in PhV

Stochastic Programming Model in Least Cost Feed Formulation for Lactating Cattle

A conventional linear programming model (LPM) for feed formulation of lactating cattle will overlook the variation in feed components. LPM only considers the mean composition of feed values, regardless of variations, the confidence in satisfying the nutrient need falls to 50%. Whereas the stochastic model (SM), which takes into account both the mean and variation of feed composition and provides 90-99% confidence in meeting the nutrient need. In present work, we have proposed SM for least-cost feed formulation of lactating cattle where the variation in the composition of nutrients like crude protein (CP), Calcium (Ca) and Phosphorus (P) in the feedstuff are considered. Data provided by the National Research Council (2001) are the basis for the current analysis. These SMs are resolved using M.S. Excel's Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) nonlinear and LINGO's Nonlinear solver, and the results are compared to LPM; the feed formulated by SM (90 % and 99 %) has the lowest cost when compared to LPM. Nutrients estimated by LPM, SM by GRG nonlinear, and SM by Nonlinear solver utilized for feed formulation had no significant differences as (p>0.05).  When compared to LPM, the stochastic model is a better technique, particularly when dealing with nutrient variation

Associations between purine metabolites and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia

Background: The antioxidant defense system, which is known to be dysregulated in schizophrenia, is closely linked to the dynamics of purine pathway. Thus, alterations in the homeostatic balance in the purine pathway may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Methodology/Principal Findings: Breakdown products in purine pathway were measured using high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with a coulometric multi-electrode array system for 25 first-episode neuroleptic-naïve patients with schizophrenia at baseline and at 4-weeks following initiation of treatment with antipsychotic medication. Associations between these metabolites and clinical and neurological symptoms were examined at both time points. The ratio of uric acid and guanine measured at baseline predicted clinical improvement following four weeks of treatment with antipsychotic medication. Baseline levels of purine metabolites also predicted clinical and neurological symtpoms recorded at baseline; level of guanosine was associated with degree of clinical thought disturbance, and the ratio of xanthosine to guanosine at baseline predicted degree of impairment in the repetition and sequencing of actions. Conclusions/Significance: Findings suggest an association between optimal levels of purine byproducts and dynamics in clinical symptoms and adjustment, as well as in the integrity of sensory and motor processing. Taken together, alterations in purine catabolism may have clinical relevance in schizophrenia pathology

Critical appraisal of drug promotional literature using World Health Organisation guidelines

Background: Pharmaceutical marketing using drug promotional literatures is an important strategy adopted by the companies to promote their drugs. The primary objective of the present study is to compare the drug promotional literature of different pharmaceutical companies on the basis of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on ethical drug promotion.Methods: This observational, cross sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital, Delhi. The promotional literature was evaluated in accordance with WHO guidelines, nature of claims, pictorial content presented in it and for the cited references.Results: A total of 208 promotional brochures were analysed. Only few (5.8%) of the promotional literature fulfilled all the criteria as mentioned by the guidelines. Nutritional supplements (27.9%) were the most promoted group of drugs. Pharmaceutical companies were most reluctant to provide information regarding contraindications (9.6%), adjuvants (11.5), side effects (10.6%) and drug interactions (9.6%). Generic name, brand name, dosage form, therapeutic indications were outlined in most of the brochures. Exaggerated emotional claims were made in 47.1% brochures, followed by that of efficacy in 39.4% and safety in 25% of brochures. Pictures of medicinal products outnumbered others with 39.9% followed by pictures of women, children and doctors with 20.7%, 17.3% and 13.5% respectively.Conclusions: Majority of the drug promotional literature did not comply with the ethical guidelines and was inadequate in terms of their adequacy, quality and reliability. Hence, it can be concluded that the majority of the promotional advertisements that are given to the prescribers are not able to spread awareness towards rational prescribing.

Innovative use of sweet sorghum juice and syrup in food industry

Sugar is one of the vital ingredients in all types of processed foods. Sugar is also extensively used in the pharmaceutical industry. The price of sugar has been rising during last five years. World trade in sugar is expected to decline by 5%, constrained by reduced export availabilities in several sugar producing countries. As a result, and given a strong global demand, international sugar prices may well remain relatively high and volatile in the coming years1. This is attributed to low cane availability and increased sugar intake in several emerging and developing countries. Hence, the need for suitable sugar alternatives. Sweet sorghum juice, obtained from low water consuming, drought resistant, short duration and seed propagated sweet sorghum, is thus a suitable source to obtain syrup. This syrup can replace sugar in food and pharmaceutical industry applications, thereby reducing its dependence on sugar

Predicting the response of a submillimeter bolometer to cosmic rays

Bolometers designed to detect. submillimeter radiation also respond to cosmic, gamma, and x rays. Because detectors cannot be fully shielded from such energy sources, it is necessary to understand the effect of a photon or cosmic-ray particle being absorbed. The resulting signal (known as a glitch) can then be removed from raw data. We present measurements using an Americium-241 gamma radiation source to irradiate a prototype bolometer for the High Frequency Instrument in the Planck Surveyor satellite. Our measurements showed no variation in response depending on where the radiation was absorbed, demonstrating that the bolometer absorber and thermistor thermalize quickly. The bolometer has previously been fully characterized both electrically and optically. We find that using optically measured time constants underestimates the time taken for the detector to recover from a radiation absorption event. However, a full thermal model for the bolometer, with parameters taken from electrical and optical measurements, provides accurate time constants. Slight deviations from the model were seen at high energies; these can be accounted for by use of an extended model

Associations between purine metabolites and monoamine neurotransmitters in first-episode psychosis

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a biochemically complex disorder characterized by widespread defects in multiple metabolic pathways whose dynamic interactions, until recently, have been difficult to examine. Rather, evidence for these alterations has been collected piecemeal, limiting the potential to inform our understanding of the interactions amongst relevant biochemical pathways. We herein review perturbations in purine and neurotransmitter metabolism observed in early SZ using a metabolomic approach. Purine catabolism is an underappreciated, but important component of the homeostatic response of mitochondria to oxidant stress. We have observed a homeostatic imbalance of purine catabolism in first-episode neuroleptic-naïve patients with SZ (FENNS). Precursor and product relationships within purine pathways are tightly correlated. Although some of these correlations persist across disease or medication status, others appear to be lost among FENNS suggesting that steady formation of the antioxidant uric acid (UA) via purine catabolism is altered early in the course of illness. As is the case for within-pathway correlations, there are also significant cross-pathway correlations between respective purine and tryptophan (TRP) pathway metabolites. By contrast, purine metabolites show significant cross-pathway correlation only with tyrosine, and not with its metabolites. Furthermore, several purine metabolites (UA, guanosine, or xanthine) are each significantly correlated with 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in healthy controls, but not in FENNS at baseline or 4-week after antipsychotic treatment. Taken together, the above findings suggest that purine catabolism strongly associates with the TRP pathways leading to serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) and kynurenine metabolites. The lack of a significant correlation between purine metabolites and 5-HIAA, suggests alterations in key 5-HT pathways that may both be modified by and contribute to oxidative stress via purine catabolism in FENNS