Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and behavior about rational use of medicines in second year medical students

Background: To assess the knowledge about various issues concerned with rational use of medicines in second year medical studentsMethods: This was a survey-based, cross-sectional study in which a self developed, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used. Respondents were 153 students of second year MBBS (beginning of third semester). They were explained about nature and purpose of study and necessary consent obtained. Questions were framed to obtain information about various issues concerned with use of medicines, common beliefs /misconceptions, purchase of medicines, sources of information about medicines etc. Results were expressed as counts and percentages.Results: Majority of respondents were aware about OTC (54%) and generic medicines (96.7%), importance of reading medicine label (58.8%), that medicines are not needed for every illness (86.2%), medicines manufactures by big multinational companies are not always better (67.9%). 75.8% respondents were not influenced by direct to consumer advertising for purchase of medicines and 69.9% opined that medicines obtained from government hospital are not of inferior quality. 83.6% of respondents opined that they never mixed treatment of more than one doctor at a time and 83% always purchased all medicines written in prescription. For 93.4% respondents’ doctors’ advice was the most important factor that influenced medicine purchase.Conclusion: Though majority of respondents were aware about most of the issues addressed in the questionnaire which seems to be a positive finding, those still unaware needs to be educated by adopting suitable interventions

Clozapine induced pneumonitis: a case report

Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic used for the treatment of schizophrenia. Clozapine acts by blocking serotonin receptors in the brain, thereby reducing the symptoms of schizophrenia. Clozapine is usually restricted to the treatment of resistant cases of schizophrenia. Clozapine induced pneumonitis is a very rare adverse reaction and, one such incident in a 16-year-old Indian boy is intricated in this case report

Fatal Stevens-Johnson syndrome induced by phenytoin: a case report

Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) are rare (one to two per 10,00,00 population per year) but  life threatening adverse drug reactions. Drugs commonly implicated are anti-epileptics, anti-microbials and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Amongst anti-epileptics, carbamazepine and phenytoin are the major culprits. We report here a fatal case of SJS due to phenytoin

Paracetamol induced fixed drug eruption: a case report

Fixed drug eruption (FDE) is a type of drug-induced skin reaction pattern that characteristically recurs at the same skin or mucosal site. Paracetamol is one of the common drugs prescribed as analgesic–antipyretic agent in all age group of patients. FDE is a well-reported, but uncommon side-effect of paracetamol, usually the classic, pigmenting type most commonly found in children and adolescents. We present a case of 52 years old male patient who developed FDE over the glans penis following paracetamol use

Pre and post-interventional pattern of self medication in three common illnesses in staff of a tertiary hospital

Objective: To find the pattern of self medication in three common illnesses (diarrhea, sore throat, common cold) in nonmedical staff of a tertiary care teaching hospital and to study the effect of IEC. Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study carried out in 100 randomly selected nonmedical staff members. Participants were interviewed by a semi structured questionnaire to obtain information about practice of self medication in the three illnesses. In the second phase participants were educated about proper self medication using Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) intervention. In post test the same information was obtained from the participants using the same questionnaire. Pre and post intervention data was compared to see whether intervention has resulted in any change in the pattern of self medication. Results: For all the three diseases the use of medicines including anti microbials did not decrease significantly after intervention. During post test significantly more number of participants were aware about warning symptoms of the disease and precautions to be taken in children and pregnant women. Even during pre intervention many participants were aware about non-pharmacological measures to be adopted in the treatment of these diseases which increased after intervention, though not significantly. Conclusion: It is possible to improve self medication practices for the treatment of common illnesses if appropriate IEC intervention is adopted. This requires that all related stakeholders should intensify efforts to educate the general public and ensure appropriate use of OTC medicines

SOLUBILITY ENHANCEMENT OF GLICLAZIDE BY SOLID DISPERSION METHOD

In the present research work, an attempt was made to improve the solubility and dissolution rate of a poorly soluble drug, Gliclazide by solid dispersion method using soluplus and kollidon VA64 as a carrier and PEG 4000, sorbitol, cremophor EL as a plasticizer. Evaluation of solid dispersion i.e. in vitro- dissolution, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed. The solid dispersion of KollidonVA64 and PEG 4000(1:1) showed the best cumulative drug release (72.16±2.01). The solid dispersions were then formulated as tablets and were subjected to various preformulation and post formulations studies. The evaluation of tablet batches i.e. hardness, friability, drug content, in vitro release, and stability parameters have been studied. After the evaluation of all batches, the F4 batch shows the best cumulative release (95.57±1.25percent). From this study, it can be concluded that dissolution rate of gliclazide could be enhanced by tablets containing solid dispersion by direct compression technique.KEYWORDSGliclazide, Solid Dispersion, Fusion Method, Plasticizer

An ML and SMS remote access based model for Anti-theft protection of Android devices

Android phones being stolen is a significant problem that causes concerns to intellectual privacy and property. Always protecting smartphones from being stolen is a problem that remains. The key findings of the survey of existing systems for theft protection are, they provide various efficient functionalities but fail when the internet is unavailable or require specialized equipment to detect thefts. Most of these solutions are not free of charge, inefficient, time-consuming, or/and inflexible. This paper puts forward a system that provides an ML-based real-time anti-theft and remote access system for android devices. It detects theft using SVM-RBF model trained on feature-set extracted from the inertial sensor’s data with an accuracy of 0.76. Whereas remote access is provided using short message services (SMS). The salient feature of this system is minimal configuration without intruding human-assisted tasks. Moreover, it will be an excellent help for authentic smartphone users to realize the theft situation and utilize the remote access features

Effect of information, education and communication intervention on awareness about rational pharmacy practice in pharmacy students

Background: There is a growing indifference among the pharmacy practitioners towards their duty as information providers to the patients. The patients do not always get enough desired information about proper use of medicines from the prescribers also. This contributes to improper use of medicines by the patients. Objectives: To bring about awareness about rational pharmacy practice in pharmacy students for better service to the patients. Material and Methods: The final year students of Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm) from four colleges of Nagpur were enrolled for the study after informed consent. Their base knowledge was assessed through a written test which comprised of 27 objective questions related to rational pharmacy practice. This was followed by a series of seven articles on rational medicine use, published in leading local English news daily. The participants were reminded to read them on the day of publication of each article. As a backup, the articles were displayed on the notice board of respective colleges. Second intervention was a half day interactive session where series of six lectures were delivered to the participants on the right and wrong approaches in pharmacy practice. Posters about the do′s and dont′s of rational pharmacy practice were also displayed at the venue. The session was followed by a repeat test using the same pre-test to assess the change. Pre and post intervention data was compared using Fisher′s Exact test. Results: It was observed that the intervention did bring about a positive change in the attitude and knowledge of the final year Pharmacy students about rational pharmacy practice. Discussion: The role of a pharmacist in health care provision is usually overlooked in India. Hence there is strong need for reinforcement in final year B. Pharm when most of the students go in for community service. Such interventions will be helpful in bringing about a positive change towards rational practice of pharmacy. Conclusion: This study showed that a properly timed and meticulously implemented intervention brings about a positive change in the attitude and knowledge of pharmacy students