Aim: To evaluate the knowledge of health professionals in Palestine regarding the advantages of sustained release dosage forms (SRDFs) over conventional therapy. Methods: Data were gathered from a questionnaire that was handed out to community pharmacists, physicians and patients. Pharmaceutical industry decision makers were enrolled in this study. Data were analyzed using the SPSS. Results: Pharmacists (92.9%) and 89.2% of physicians thought that SRDFs improve patient compliance. 81.5% of pharmacists and 77% of physicians were in agreement regarding the capacity of SRDFs to maintain therapeutic activity during night. In this study, 81.5% of pharmacists and 81% of physicians believed that SRDFs provide further advantage with psychiatric patients who forget to take their medications. Pharmacists (63.1%) and only 63.5% of physicians believed that SRDFs yield a time saving for nurses who use SRDFs in hospital. Only 45.3% of physicians and 43.4% of pharmacists thought that SRDFs result in cost saving due to better disease management. Pharmacists (95.2%) and 95.9% of physicians agreed that SRDFs could be the right choice for faith patient’s who must take their medication during the month of Ramadan. Pharmacists (66.7%) and 50.7% of physicians recognize that SRDFs may be unsafe if they are improperly formulated. Bad swallowing was also recognized as inconveniences of SRDFs by 67.9% of pharmacists and 57.3% of physicians. Given the above advantages, 75% of patients showed economical problems regarding the cost of the single course therapy of SRDFs and 100% of interviewed patients were enthusiastic about the advantage of SRDFs during Ramadan

العنوان

Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal (2010) 18, 251–256

الناشر

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بلد الناشر

فلسطين

نوع المنشور

Both (Printed and Online)

المجلد

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السنة

2010

الصفحات

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