Community pharmacists’ epilepsy counseling: A theory of planned behavior approach

Abstract

Background and Aims: Community pharmacists play a major role in healthcare. To improve the success in epilepsy treatment, community pharmacists’ involvement is important. This study aimed to express the influencing factors of community phar- macists’ counseling to patients with epilepsy. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were held with fifteen community pharmacists in the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. A directed content approach was performed to analyze the study results. Results: The participants emphasized that easy access to community pharmacists is worthy. Patients with epilepsy have various expectations from pharmacists. However, lack of communication was determined between community pharmacists and physicians. Irregular drug usage and getting inadequate and misleading patient information are highlighted as perceived major barriers/difficulties. All pharmacists have the intention to receive training on epilepsy. Conclusion: Improving communication between pharmacists and physicians may help to enhance collaborative work in epi- lepsy management and to increase treatment success. Moreover, vocational training may be organized to enhance pharma- cists’ counseling

Keywords

• community pharmacists
• counseling
• epilepsy
• theory of planned behavior

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