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Keywords
PPIsCommunity pharmacyPerceptionAttitude
1.Introduction
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) effectively suppress acid secretion and play an important role in peptic ulcer disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease (Wolfe and Sachs, 2000).This rise a concern about the overutilization of PPIs, which will lead to significant high cost and undesirable outcomes such as clostridium difficile, acute interstitial nephritis and microscopic colitis (Katz, 2010).The introduction of a standardized guideline on prescribing PPI helped in decreasing inpatient use of PPI prescriptions, only among patients not receiving PPIs at the time of hospital admission (Yachimski et al., 2010).In view of this, we carried out a questionnaire-based study to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of community pharmacists (CPs) in Riyadh city, towards the use of gastric acid suppressants particularly, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).In addition, they may lead to minerals and vitamins malabsorption such as calcium, magnesium and vitamin B12 (Abraham, 2012).This support that the majority of prescriptions are among outpatient sittings and are taking care by community pharmacists (Yachimski et al., 2010).Despite that these medications are prescribed medications, many community pharmacies in Saudi Arabia still dispense them without prescription.PPIs also used as protectant agent in stress ulcer disease and along with the use of NSAID (Wolfe and Sachs, 2000).Community pharmacists' knowledge and attitude toward PPIs play an important role in optimizing the use of PPI and to prevent any adverse event, drug-drug interaction or inappropriate use PPIs.It is estimated that over $13 million sales of PPI prescriptions occurred worldwide (Katz, 2010).