Drug Therapy Problems in Schizophrenic Patients - Abstract
The term schizophrenia can be derived from the Greek ‘schizo’ which means splitting and ‘phren’ which means mind. Schizophrenia affects slightly more males than females. It occurs in all ethnic groups around the world. Symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions usually start between ages 16 and 30. Males tend to experience symptoms a little earlier than females. Most commonly, schizophrenia occurs in late adolescence and early adulthood. Schizophrenia afflicts approximately 1% of the world’s population. Drug related problems are of a major concern in health care because of increased cost, morbidity and mortality. Drug related a problem is
correlated with prolonged medication adverse drug reaction, elevated economic burden, and an almost 2-fold enhanced risk of death. Adverse drug reaction is characterized as the drug product causes an undesirable reaction; a safer drug product is required due to risk factors, the drug product causes an allergic reaction and the drug product is contraindicated due to risk factors. Additional drug therapy can be defined as the additional drug therapy is required to treat or prevent a medical condition in the patient. Antipsychotic poly pharmacy is defined as two or more combination of antipsychotic drugs prescribed at the same time.