Background: Pharmaceutical care (PC) has a significant impact on optimizing pharmacotherapy and improving patients’ quality of life. We aimed to determine the attitudes and perceived barriers of final year pharmacy undergraduates towards provision of PC services in Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 232 students using a 13-item-standard PC attitude survey (PCAS) questionnaire and 12-itemed PC barrier questionnaires. Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to measure the median difference between groups, at alpha=0.05, and Spearman’s rho test was used to measure the strength of the correlation. Results: Majority of students were self-motivated in undertaking the current pharmacy education (178, 76.7%) and had no previous incomplete grades that could delay their graduation (177, 76.3%). Over 80% of students had a positive attitude toward all items of PCAS (agreed and strongly agreed) except for two items. Whereas, 61 (26.3%) disagreed and strongly disagreed that providing PC takes too much time and effort. The major barriers perceived were inadequate PC training (176, 75.9%), inadequate drug information resources in the pharmacy (170, 73.3%), and lack of access to patient medical records in the pharmacy (165, 71.1%). A significant relationship was noticed between positive attitude towards PC and three factors; source of motivation, current employment in pharmacy job, and incomplete grades delaying graduation. Age factor was significant but negatively correlated with the scores of positive attitudes namely “I would like to perform PC as a pharmacist practitioner”, “Providing PC is professionally rewarding” and “I feel that the PC is the right direction for the provision to be headed”. Conclusion: Nepalese undergraduate pharmacy students had positive attitudes toward PC. Exercising proper pharmacy practice regulations and educational efforts to overcome the perceived barriers may lead to better delivery of PC.

Gastric ulcer is one of the major health problems in developing countries. Furthermore, high cost and of adverse effects are seen with the long term use of allopathic drugs in treatment of ulcer which are diminished by the use of herbal drugs. The aim of this study is to evaluate antiulcer activity of crude extract of Dalbergia sissoo leaves on experimentally induced gastric ulcer in wistar albino rats. Methodology involves screening for antiulcer activity of the plant using pylorus ligation and Indomethacin induced ulcer models in albino rats using 4 groups as; control (Tween 80 1 % v/v solution, 5 ml/kg), standard (Ranitidine 80 mg/kg), 250 mg/kg leaves extract and 500 mg/kg leaves extract given respective doses orally (p.o.). The parameters viz. mean ulcer index, percentage protection, gastric pH, protein, carbohydrate, pepsin, free and total acidity and ratio of total carbohydrates and proteins (TC:TP) were determined. The result showed the significant decrease in mean ulcer index of the leaves extract treated group in both the models compared to control. Furthermore, as obvious from pylorus ligation model the offensive factors like free and total acidity, pepsin content and protein content were decreased to significant levels whereas the defensive factors like total carbohydrate content and TC:TP ratio were increased significantly compared to control in dose dependent manner. The study concluded that leaves extract of Dalbergia sissoo had significant antiulcer activity and was not only effective in reducing the development of gastric ulcer but also increasing the healing of the gastric ulcer in dose dependent manner.

Background: Antihypertensive medications reduce blood pressure and decrease cardiovascular dis­ease morbidity and mortality. A number of antihypertensives with same formulation but different prices are available in the market. In the present study we aim to study such price variations of antihypertensive drugs currently available in the Nepalese market. Methods: We obtained the marked price of different antihypertensives manufactured in Nepal and India from various medicine stores within Chitwan from February to June 2021. Cost ratio (CR) and percentage cost variation (%CV) was calculated using Microsoft Office Excel-2019. Results: We observed a high percentage of cost variation in Amlodipine 5mg (CR: 3.33 %CV: 233.33) among Nepali and Losartan 50mg (CR: 32.31 %CV: 3131.47) among Indian antihypertensives. Conclusions: A wide percentage cost variation was observed among antihypertensive medications cur­rently available in the Nepalese market. Regulatory bodies could address the issue to ensure affordability of essential antihypertensive medications.

Background: Large number of new drugs are introduced into the market everyday. Drug advertisements are used as a major marketing tool by the pharmaceutical companies to promote their new drugs. WHO has recommended the drug promotional advertisement criteria to make promotional more ethical and rational. So, the aim of this study was to evaluate the drug advertisements made by pharmaceutical companies as per WHO ethical criteria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of drug advertisements was carried out in the Department of Pharmacology at CMC. The drug advertisements were evaluated based on 11 criteria laid down by the WHO. The data was entered in Microsoft Office Excel software 2008 and exported to IBM SPSS 20.0 version software for further analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Total 185 drug advertisements were evaluated. Among them, most of them 66.40% were promoting single drug formulation. Antimicrobials 21.6% were the most commonly promoted group. Only 12.4% followed all the criteria as led down by WHO. Most of the drug advertisements have the brand name written with approved generic name, dose, manufacture name and dosage form. It was found that the most neglected part of drug advertisements was information related to drug interactions (12.40%) and side effects (14.10%). Conclusions: Majority of drug advertisements fulfilled only half of the WHO ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion. This indicates that unethical drug promotional advertisement is wide spread which need concern of all health authority.

Background: Learners’ feedback is considered an effective tool in evaluating teaching-learning methods and revising curriculum. The aim of the present study was to assess perception and feedback of undergraduate medical students towards teaching-learning pharmacology. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based study conducted among 183 undergraduate medical students of Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan Nepal from March 2021 to April 2021.. Perception and feedback of students towards teaching-learning pharmacology was assessed using a pretested and validated questionnaire. Results: More than half (53.6 %) of the students reported pharmacology as their favorite subject, but only 27.4 % students would opt to pursue post-graduation in the same subject. Majority of the students opined a review of curriculum was necessary with inclusion of recent advances (86.4 %) and emphasis on national health problems (83 %) with a change in assessment (inclusion of multiple choice questions) (83 %). Liquid-crystal display (LCD) projector and whiteboard combined was chosen as the ideal teaching-learning media and group discussion as the ideal teaching-learning method by 85.2 % and 53.6% of students respectively. Majority of the students suggested more use of audio-visual aids (94.5%) and inclusion of case-based learnings (98.9 %) into the curriculum. Conclusions: Perception of students towards teaching-learning pharmacology was positive. A review of the current curriculum with inclusion of a new assessment tool was suggested.