Evaluation of the pharmacists knowledge, awareness, and practices towards pharmacovigilance in Syria

Background: The system of pharmacovigilance in Syria is administered by the Syrian Ministry Of Health (MOH), it is responsible for receiving reports from the patient all over the country for possible Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). Pharmacists are members of this system and play a very important role in its implementation. Until now, Few pharmacists know about this system in Syria, how to deal with it, or even how important it is. Aims: To discover Syrian pharmacists' knowledge, awareness, proceedings, and possible obstacles encountered while reporting the (ADRs). and to estimate the sociodemographic data from Damascus and rural Damascus. Methods: We used a self-administered, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey conducted on a random sample of 235 registered pharmacists in 2 Syrian governorates. Results: 84% was the rate of response, 45% had a familiarity with the PV system in Syria but the rest didn’t. Some of them have received complaints from patients about unknown side effects, and their percentage was 60%, only 22% reported it. The most significant percentage of notifications was through the company’s representative (10%), and 6% used the Ministry of Health (MOH) form. Conclusions: Pharmacists who participated in the survey showed limited knowledge about pharmacovigilance (PV), also about its importance and extent of application in Syria. They had overlapping attitudes toward the reports, although they emphasized the importance of it. However, the current level of participation is rather low.