Perfil de vendas de medicamentos anti-inflamatórios em farmácias comunitárias no município de Caicó-RN.

Abstract

Acute or chronic pain and inflammation are common complaints in community pharmacies, and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs is extremely used to control them. Used indiscriminately, being by self-medication or by prescription, anti-inflammatories are among the drugs that are most consumed in the world. The present study aims to investigate the incidence of anti-inflammatory sales by self-medication and prescription in three community pharmacies located in the municipality of Caicó/RN. The sample consisted of sales made in the period of February and March of 2019, in the morning and evening shift. A form containing information on the sale of prescription and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs has been developed. The data were transposed to a digital platform using the features of the Microsoft Access version 2010 program. For the validation of the typing the Epi Info program version 6.02 was used. After typing, the database was transferred to the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for Windows version 13.0 for statistical analysis of the data. Data were collected from 1,874 sales, of which 1,377 sales were by self-medication, which corresponds to 73.5%, while only 497 sales were made according to prescription prescription. Of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), Nimesulide was the top selling drug, with 49.3% of total sales; followed by Diclofenac, with 14.9%; Ketoprofen, 9.7% and Naproxen, 7.5%. Of the Anti-Inflammatory Steroids (AIEs), the top selling drug was Prednisone with 8.5% of total sales. As a result of data analysis, it was concluded that anti-inflammatory drugs are widely used by self-medication, which points out the importance and necessity of the pharmacist present in community pharmacies to guide the correct use of these drugs.