ROLE OF A PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST IN THE EFFICIENCY OF PHARMACOTHERAPY FOR HYPERTENSION

The article presents the results of a questionnaire survey of pharmaceutical chemists and pharmacists working in Volgograd pharmacies. The survey estimated the impact of pharmaceutical counseling of a patient in the pharmacy on the efficiency of pharmacotherapy for hypertension. The authors studied the principles used by pharmaceutical workers during analog substitution (selection of a generic drug). The study was performed during a simple one-stage prospective descriptive epidemiological survey design. Sixty pharmaceutical chemists and pharmacists working in the municipal, governmental, and private pharmacies of Volgograd were interviewed applying a questionnaire. Special questionnaires developed by the authors of this paper were used for this survey. The questionnaire contained 20 topical questions on pharmacotherapy for hypertension. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used for statistical analysis. The epidemiological survey has established that pharmacy workers’ inadequate knowledge in the pharmacology of antihypertensive drugs and the current principles of treatment in patients with hypertension are one of the important factors lowering the efficiency of therapy for this disease.