Citation

Wazaify M, Steenkamp C. Int. J. Pharm. Pract. 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1093/ijpp/riae028

PMID

38943475

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hosts some of the most devastating and chronic conflicts of the 21st century. While much is known about the impact of violent conflict on various aspects of public health (including pressure on healthcare institutions, disease outbreaks amongst refugee populations, and reduced access to medicines), very little is understood about how violent conflict impacts levels of medicine misuse and abuse amongst populations. Pharmacists, especially community pharmacists, are ideally placed to impact public health as they are at the frontline of recording and witnessing this misuse and abuse [1]. Only a few studies have explored the misuse and abuse of prescription and nonprescription drugs in areas like Palestine [2], Yemen [3], Iraq [4], and Syria [5]. Importantly, these studies do not explicitly investigate the impact of violent conflict on medicine misuse and abuse.

We carried out a research project between 2021 and 2023 to investigate the impact of violent conflict on pharmacy practice as well as the abuse and misuse of prescription and nonprescription drugs in four MENA countries, namely Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen. The four countries, in this study, have experienced severe political instability and protracted violence in recent years. These conflicts have affected public health in many ways [6-8]. In addition, pharmacy education and practice have stalled or even regressed in these settings [9], and the overall level of services in the community pharmacy sector is particularly low...

Language: en