Study of the Duration of Treatment in Drug Prescriptions Received in Pharmacies in Dakar

The prescription must include the name of the drugs or products prescribed, dosage form, dosage, directions for use and duration of treatment. However, sometimes errors can occur that can have consequences for the health of patients. Our study concerns the use of medical prescriptions received in pharmacies in the Dakar department. The survey was conducted in 90 pharmacies in these communes, which represent one third of the 270 pharmacies in the department of Dakar. This allowed us to study 2700 prescriptions. The study took place from 1 December 2016 to 30 June 2017, i.e. over a period of 7 months. Our results show that neurologists and urologists have a longer average treatment time than other specialists, with an average of 120 days and 90 days of treatment respectively. Then, the specialists who take a long time the drug represent more than 27%, and require renewal of the drug. In 63.90% of the cases, no notification on the duration of treatment was given by the prescriber. Only 5.39% were only given the mention “to be renewed”. At the end of our analysis, we can say that the prescription must be perfectly legible to avoid confusion by the patient or the pharmacist. The pharmacist then participates in the therapeutic education of the patient and thus helps him/her to live better with his/her disease. Therefore, socio-professional health associations and organisations must provide more continuous training on prescribing to ensure good compliance and above all avoid people buying medicines in the parallel circuit in order to better control health expenditure.