Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Information overload and recent curricular changes are viewed as important contributory factors to insufficient pharmacological education of medical students. The cross sectional observational study was done to evaluate the impact of pharmacology teaching on third year MBBS students about knowledge, attitude and practice about Peptic Ulcer Diseases (PUD) in Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College, as a tertiary level teaching hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Total 100 participants (3rd year students) have volunteered to answer a structured questionnaire before and after attending pharmacology classes. Total 10 questions were structured to evaluate the causes, symptoms, treatment and complications of PUD. The same set of questionnaire was used as baseline, after formal teaching sessions and as formal examination. Only 22% of the student had the idea about the causes of PUD at the beginning that increased to 47% and 85% after attending classes and examination respectively. Most of the students were not familiar with the use of antimicrobials in the treatment of PUD that was significantly improved and understood by 78% and 98% in post-teaching and formal examination. Though 3% of the students were unaware of the complications of PUD in post-teaching evaluation, the overall impact and improvement of knowledge and attitude about PUD in 3rd year MBBS students were significant after 240 minutes (2 lectures and 2 tutorials) classes on Pharmacology and far more accurate in structured examination. The knowledge on pharmacology about PUD was satisfactory in a large proportion of 3rd year medical students and indicates that there was no urgent need to review undergraduate training in pharmacology. The relationship between the subjective ratings of teacher's effectiveness and objective exam scores indicates the satisfactory standard, content, method and tools in undergraduate teaching of Pharmacology to achieve the goal of national course curriculum. The study also helps to encourage repeated and wide-scaled evaluation to sort and prioritize the academic activity and pitfalls of teaching-learning process for different contents of undergraduate course content.

Recent advance in the knowledge of pathophysiology of pain and improvement of analgesic drugs and techniques, little improvement will show in post-operative pain management in LUCS. Like most other post-surgical populations, the new mother needs effective pain relief so that she can mobilise early but she also has the added responsibility of needing to care for her newborn baby. There is no 'gold standard' for post-caesarean pain management. This prospective observational study was done to observe the prescribing trend of analgesic used in per and post-operative patients of LUCS of gynae and obstratic department of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital. A total of normotensive and non-diabetic 111 patients were included over 6 month period of January 2015 to July 2015. Analgesics prescribed for pain management used from during and after day of operation to 4 th post-operative day were recorded. 31.03% patient received pethidine and 21.29% received fentanyl preoperatively, 91.60% patient received pethidine on the day of operation. Diclofenac (78.70%) was most commonly prescribed drug in post-operative days. Seven different strength of pethidine used per-operatively. Ten different combination of analgesics used in patients, among them pethidine and diclofenac combination used in highest cases.

Background: Pharmacovigilance is proven as an effective monitoring mechanism for safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products with the assistance of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to avoid undue physical, mental and financial suffering of patients. Thus, this study was conducted to assess awareness of pharmacovigilance among the healthcare service providers to evaluate the acquaintance, approach application (3A) of judicial reporting of ADRs and pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Dhaka. Methods: A pre-tested questionnaire-based study was done among the 5th year medical students, interns, doctors and nurses of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh to assess the overall status of acquaintance (knowledge), approach (attitude) and application (practice) pharmacovigilance. Total 417 questionnaires were distributed and 389 were included as valid, compiled and analysed using SPSS version 25.0. Results: Among the respondents, almost 78% of the nurses responded the right answers and doctors responded the lowest 29% on average. The average percentage of approach and application of pharmacovigilance was low in all the respondent groups. The poorest outcome was observed about reporting an adverse drug reactions (ADR) form by all respondents as 01% to 08%.
Conclusions: The overall status of pharmacovigilance in a tertiary teaching hospital was found paradoxically low, that revealed the necessity of much more initiatives at the undergraduate and postgraduate academic curriculum and intensive motivation, training, monitoring should be addressed to ensure the safety of medication, rationality of drug use and accomplish the national pharmacovigilance programs.

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 is putting a massive strain on the vulnerable healthcare systems in low and middle-income countries like Bangladesh. Inequitable access to healthcare is further widened by the socioeconomic gap and sense of insecurity during this pandemic. Self-medication is a common practice in Bangladesh as it provides a low-cost alternative for people, which involves inappropriate and injudicious use of medicines to treat self-recognized symptoms by the people. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Dhaka city, the tendency of taking medicines by own decision was increased alarmingly due to unusual distress, caused by high self-awareness of their health and buying capacity of medication. Objectives: To observe the prevalence, pattern, sources, and impact of self-medication practice among the respondents with high socioeconomic standings and education.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the current global public health concern. To date, no specific, effective, and approved treatment is available. With the rapid increase in the rate of infection, repurposing the use of anti-viral like remdesivir and favipiravir was considered as an option to find promising anti-COVID therapeutics. In this study, we aim to observe hepato-renal safety concerns related to these drugs. This retrospective study was done from May 17 to September 9, 2020, on a total of 1348 hospital records. 182 patients were included in the study, divided into two groups who received remdesivir only (RO) and favipiravir only (FO). The mean age of the respective groups is 59.42 (RO) and 54.64 (FO). The average duration of hospital stay was 11 to 12 days. The mortality rate (28.39%) was higher in the RO group. Mean± SD of both ALT (70.65± 50.25) and AST (62.25± 25.46) levels was increased in the RO group than FO group. On the other hand, Blood urea (56.67± 38.40) and serum creatinine (01.70± 02.41) level was higher in the FO group. Hematuria was absent in both groups, proteinuria was also unremarkable. In patients with Covid-19 receive remdesivir and favipiravir, showed an elevation in the level of hepato-renal markers.