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conferenceseries.com
Volume 6, Issue 6 (Suppl) J Psychol Psychother
ISSN: 2161-0487 JPP, an open access journal Psychosomatic Medicine 2016
December 05-06, 2016
December 05-06, 2016 Dubai, UAE
3rd International Conference on
Psychiatry & Psychosomatic Medicine
Ghaida AlAbidi et al., J Psychol Psychother 2016, 6:6 (Suppl)
Patient reasons for obtaining psychotropic medications without a prescription at retail pharmacies in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Ghaida AlAbidi1 , Fahad D Alosaimi, Fay Alruwais, Fadah Alanazi, Nadia Aljomah and Nuha Alsalameh
1King Saud University, KSA
People in developing countries are obtaining prescription-only medications from community pharmacies without seeking medical
advice. Pharmacists are dispensing prescription-only medications in general without a prescription in Saudi Arabia. This is an
observational, quantitative and cross-sectional study that was carried out from November 2014 to August 2015. When piloting the
study, all retail pharmacy workers refused to collaborate as they were afraid of the legal consequences. Then, we started collecting
convenient samples from internet users and visitors of some retail pharmacies, governmental and private psychiatric clinics. The
study included Arabic speakers who are ≥18 years old, have used at least one psychotropic medication without a prescription in the
past 4 weeks and lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 302 out of 429 participants were included. The majority (31.8%) used Escitalopram
and 38.7% used the psychotropic medication/s for more than a year. 552 medications were used by 302 participants with a mean of
1.83 medication per participant. Respondents reported taking the medications mainly to treat symptoms of “feeling sad or depressed”
(57.6%) and “general anxiety” (41.4%). Family and friends were the most common source of information relied on by the respondents
about the chosen medication (36.8%). 66.6% obtained the medication by asking the pharmacist its name. Among the reasons given
for taking psychotropic medications without a prescription, (42.4%) felt that their symptoms were not serious enough to require the
help of a psychiatrist. Using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scales, the
percentage of depression and anxiety among the participants were (46.0%) and (41.7%), respectively.
Biography
Ghaida AlAbidi is a fourth year medical student at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She is one of the authors of the paper, “Patient Reasons for Obtaining
Psychotropic Medications without a Prescription at Retail Pharmacies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia” which is under publishing process. She is interested in research
and to advance her research skills.