eISSN: 2720-5371
ISSN: 1230-2813
Advances in Psychiatry and Neurology/Postępy Psychiatrii i Neurologii
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1/2023
vol. 32
 
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abstract:
Original paper

Attitudes towards the switching of anti-epileptic medications in pharmacies: the patients’ perspective

Milena Bożek
1
,
Iwona Kurkowska-Jastrzebska
2
,
Ewa Krzystanek
3
,
Przemyslaw Bienkowski
4
,
Magdalena Konopko
1
,
Halina Sienkiewicz-Jarosz
1

  1. 1st Department of Neurology, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland
  2. 2nd Department of Neurology, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland
  3. Department of Neurology, Silesian Medical University in Katowice, Katowice, Poland
  4. Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Adv Psychiatry Neurol 2023; 32 (1): 12-17
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/ppn.2023.126329
Online publish date: 2023/04/06
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Introduction
A survey of epilepsy patients’ experiences of and attitudes towards the pharmacy switching of anti-epileptic medications.

Methods
A structured questionnaire was administered to a group of epilepsy patients treated at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology and the Medical University of Silesia, Poland. Two hundred and eleven patients (mean [± SD] age: 41.0 ± 15.6 years) were recruited; 60.6% were women. 68.2% had been treated for over 10 years.

Results
Most individuals (63%) claimed that they had never bought a generic substitute medication. Among the patients who declared that a switch had been proposed to them at a pharmacy (~40%), only 68.7% received any explanation at all from a pharmacist. Some reported positive emotions mostly related to a lower price of the new drug but also to the explanations received. Most respondents who accepted the pharmacy switch (67.4%) did not notice any significant changes in the efficacy or tolerability of treatment, while the remaining subjects reported an increase in seizure frequency (23.2%) and deterioration in treatment tolerance (9%).

Conclusions
Around 40% of Polish epilepsy patients have been confronted with a proposal to switch their anti-epileptic medications at a pharmacy. More of them report negative attitudes towards the pharmacist’s proposal than do not. It is possible that one of the major reasons for this is the insufficient information provided by pharmacists. It remains to be established whether the reported decrease in seizure control could be accounted for by a low concentration of the anti-epileptic drug in the blood after the switch.

keywords:

antiepileptic drugs, patients, attitudes, pharmacy switch
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