Drug-related problems in the treatment of hepatitis b and c virus-infected patients

Bahap, M., Drug-related Problems in the Treatment of Hepatitis B and C Virus-Infected Patients, Hacettepe University İnstitute of Health Scienses, Faculty of Pharmacy, Master Thesis in Clinical Pharmacy, Ankara, 2018. Hepatitis B and C are the leading cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. A low diagnosis rate and poor access to clinical care are a major risks in hepatitis B and C‐related morbidity and mortality. Lack of knowledge and awareness in infected patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C often leads to misinformation, missing of opportunities for prevention and treatment, and stigmatization of patients. The aim of this study was to manage the drug related problems identified by the clinical pharmacist for the drugs used by patients with hepatitis B and C, to improve the patient's treatment adherence, as well as assessing the contribution of information provided by the clinical pharmacist in the patients with the missing or incorrect information by determining the level of knowledge of these patients about the disease. This study was conducted between October 2017-April 2018 at Hacettepe University Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology and Gastroentorology Outpatient Clinics. A total of 149 patients with hepatitis B and 13 patients with hepatitis C were included in the study. All patients were interviewed by clinical pharmacist and a questionnaire on disease knowledge, adherence scale and medication appropriateness index were applied at the beginning of the study and 3 months later. During the study, 17 drug related interventions for 15 patients were made by clinical pharmacist to physicians and all but one were accepted. Total of 85 interventions made directly to the patients and all of them except 7 were accepted by both the physicians and the patients. In order to assess the level of knowledge of the patients about hepatitis B, misunderstanding and tendency of stigmatization were detected. The number of correct answers were higher in youngs, patients with higher income and with higher education level during first interview (p<0.05). The amount of correct answers significantly increased in all patients with hepatitis B and C during the second interview (p<0.05). Collaboration of clinical pharmacists with physicians is important in improving the patients' knowledge and managing hepatitis B and C.