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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2013; 05(03): 123-130
DOI: 10.4103/1947-489X.210535
Article

Dispensing practices, attitudes and knowledge of pharmacists towards herbal products in palestine

Waleed Sweileh
1   Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
,
Enass Abu Arrah
2   Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
,
Adham Abu Taha
1   Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
,
Ansam Sawalha
1   Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
,
Ola Salah
2   Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
,
Raniah Jamous
3   Palestinian Military Medical Services, Nablus, Palestine
,
Deema Adawi
2   Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
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Background and Objectives: With the global rise in the use of herbal products; pressure is increasing on pharmacists to have more knowledge about herbal medicine. We assessed pharmacists' dispensing practices, attitudes, and knowledge regarding herbal products. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among community pharmacists in north Palestine using a questionnaire. A convenience sample of 100 community pharmacists was included in the study. The mean age of participants was 33±11 years. Results: Dispensing of herbal products was common. The majority of participants (91%) believed that herbal products were beneficial and 61% believed these had fewer side effects than conventional medicines. Most participants thought they have good knowledge of herbal preparations. However, their actual knowledge in response to factual questionnaire was low. The lowest score was observed for herbal drug interactions domain. Conclusions: Although herbal products are commonly dispensed in Palestine, community pharmacists have poor knowledge about these medicines. Continuing pharmacy education in general is needed for community pharmacists to qualify them to provide a better pharmaceutical care.

Key-words:

Community pharmacists - Herbal products - Practice - Palestine


Publication History

Received: 30 October 2012

Accepted: 05 December 2012

Article published online:
07 July 2022

© 2013. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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