A Scoping Review of Disposal of Unused Medicines in Take-Back Programs

Abstract

Unused medicines in the household cause many problems. Medicines take-back programs were established to prevent inappropriate medicines disposal, abuse, accidental poisoning, and help reduce the number of unused medicines in households. A literature search using the keywords “unused AND medicine”, “disposal AND unused AND medicine”, “reasons AND medicine AND disposal”, “medicine AND take-back program” and “cost AND medicine AND take-back program” in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Google Scholar. Articles published in 2010 – 2020 in English report the medicine take-back program with the number of medicines and/or reasons for the return and/or economic value of medicines collected in the medicines take-back program. A total of 16 articles were included in the criteria for this systematic review. Medicines take-back program was majority-owned in the US (69%). Two programs focus on returning controlled medicines. Gastrointestinal, respiratory, cardiovascular, antimicrobial and non-narcotic analgesic were the most common of all medicines returned. The expired medicine and treatment discontinuation by (doctors/prescribers) were the most reason medicine was returned to the medicines take-back program. The total cost of all medicines returned topped $1,118,020. Medicines take-back program was an essential solution to the inappropriate medicine disposal problem. Good coordination was required between the government and other authorities.This medicine take-back issues can help solve the problems of medicine use, storage, and disposal that lead to the country's economy.

Do pharmacists counsel customers on the disposal of unused or expired household medications? A national survey among 1,596 pharmacists in Indonesia

“…The economic value may have influenced the willingness to receive unused and expired household medications, as observed in previous studies ( El-Hamamsy, 2011 ; Perry, Shinn and Stanovich, 2014; Law et al, 2015 ; Moustarah, Desai and Blebea, 2020; Rahmadani and Kristina, 2021 ). Handling medication waste requires direct costs to properly dispose of the medication and avoid environmental issues ( West, et al, 2014 , Rahmadani and Kristina, 2021 , Romanelli and Lucente, 2022 ). Reportedly, healthcare facilities, particularly clinics and community health centers, often do not make specific budget allocations for handling unused or expired medications medications ( Nurfitria et al, 2022 ).…”

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices for using and disposing of antibiotics: A cross-sectional study at an Indonesian community

“…Because pharmacies are easily accessible to the community, the implementation of the drug return program is primarily done in them. According to the scoping review study, the number of drugs returned demonstrated the community's enthusiasm for participating in the program (Rahmadani & Kristina, 2021). This indicates that the drug return program could be a viable solution to the community's need for a specialised drug waste management program.…”