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ABSTRACT
Background: The abuse of ophthalmic medications is rare and under-researched worldwide. Ophthalmic antimiscarinic drugs are abused by people who seek to feel euphoria or induce hallucinations. This is the first study of its kind in Jordan to investigate the abuse of ophthalmic drugs. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the abuse of ophthalmic drugs sold with or without a prescription in community pharmacies in Jordan. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a structured, validated, and piloted questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was delivered by hand to a sample of community pharmacists working in four cities in Jordan. Data were managed and analyzed in SPSS. Results: A total of 220 questionnaires were completed (response rate = 95.8%). A total of 178 respondents (80.9%) reported ophthalmic drug abuse. Respondents indicated that most of the ophthalmic products requests were not accompanied by prescriptions (n = 136; 61.8%). The respondents identified five nonprescription and two prescription-only ophthalmic drugs that they believed to be commonly abused. Conclusions: Abuse of ophthalmic drugs is prevalent and perceived to be possibly escalating in the community pharmacy setting in Jordan. Research into methods to effectively deal with such drug abuse is needed and legislation that would require stricter inspections of pharmacies should be enacted.
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge the support to the trainers from the University of California, San Francisco, and from Yale University.
Funding
We wish to acknowledge the support from the Hashemite University (HU), the National Institute on Drug Abuse-International Program (NIDA, International Program), and the Jordanian Society for Scientific Research (JSSR) for funding the training workshop that helped with the development and revision of this manuscript.