Objectives. To identify and evaluate factors affecting the career preferences of fourth-year bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) students in Malaysia in the presence of a 4-year period of mandatory government service. Methods. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional study to collect data from final-year BPharm students enrolled at 3 government-funded universities and 1 private university in Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results. Three hundred fourteen students responded (213 from public universities and 101 from the private university). Approximately 32% of public university students and 37% of private university students ranked their own interest in pharmacy as the reason for undertaking pharmacy degree studies; 40.4% of public and 19.8% of private university respondents stated that they would enter a nonpharmacy-related career upon graduation if given the choice. Public university students ranked hospital pharmacy as their choice of first career setting (4.39, p 5 0.001), while private students ranked community pharmacy first (4.1, p 5 0.002). On a scale of 1 to 5, salary received the highest mean score (3.9 and 4.0, p 5 0.854) as the extrinsic factor most influencing their career choice. Conclusions. Final-year students at Malaysian public universities were most interested in hospital pharmacy practice as their first career step upon graduation, while private university students were most interested in community pharmacy. The top 3 extrinsic factors rated as significant in selecting a career destination were salary, benefits, and geographical location.

Background:Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, resulting in increased healthcare cost. Association of psychotropic medications with ADRs is common. Pharmacovigilance can play a vital role in alerting the healthcare providers from the possible ADRs and thus protecting the patients receiving psychotropic medications.Aim:To monitor and report the incidence and nature of ADRs in psychiatry outpatient department (OPD).Materials and Methods:A prospective observational study was carried out in the psychiatry OPD. All the patients attending psychiatry outpatient and satisfying the inclusion criteria were monitored for ADRs. The causality, severity and preventability assessment of documented ADRs was done. Chi-square test was done to identify the association between ADRs and sociodemographic, disease and treatment-related variables. Paired Student's t-test was carried out to compare the significance difference in the weight of the patients who reported weight gain to psychotropic medications.Results:The incidence rate of ADR was found to be 10.2%. A total of 112 ADRs were documented. Weight gain 18 (16.07%) followed by somnolence 8 (7.14%) was the most commonly reported ADR. Atypical antipsychotics 37 (33.0%) were the most common class of psychotropic drugs implicated in ADRs. Escitalopram 16 (14.28%) followed by quetiapine 14 (12.5%) were associated with a maximum number of ADRs. No significant association (P > 0.05) documented between demographic and treatment-related variables with number of ADRs.Conclusion:Study revealed a moderate incidence of ADRs in patients attending the psychiatry OPD. Majority of the ADRs reported during the study were mild in nature and not preventable type.

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Aim:The aim of this study is to assess the nature, reasons, and consequences of self-medication practice among the general population of Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE.Materials and Methods:This was a prospective, cross-sectional, survey-based study. Data with respect to knowledge, awareness, and practices regarding self-medication were collected through an interviewer-assisted questionnaire answered by the study participants. Thus, collected data from 413 survey respondents were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0.Results:The prevalence of self-medication practices among our study respondents was 52.1%. A headache (155 [37.5%]) was the most common clinical condition treated through self-medication practice. Familiarity with the treatment/medication (198 [48%]) was the most common cited reasons, whereas the advertisement and friend's advice were the most (182 [44%]) cited sources of information for self-medication usage. The majority (265 [64.1%]) of the respondents were considered self-medication practice as safe. However, 19 respondents reported side-effects or complications during the due course of self-medication. It was observed that there is a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between age and employment status of this study participants with self-medication practices.Conclusion:The data from this study show that the self-medication practice is very common among the study population. Variables such as younger age group and occupation status were significantly associated with self-medication practice. We emphasize the role of pharmacist in educating the community regarding safe medication practices such as harmful effects of self-medicating and inappropriate practices such as sharing the medications among family members and friends.