Jaya Gurung received Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy at RIPANS, Mizoram, India and pursuing Doctor of Pharmacy at Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore, India. Currently, she is an Intern at St. Philomena’s Hospital, Bangalore, India. She has completed her project entitled “Screening for postpartum depression among newly delivered women”. She actively participates in ward rounds, monitoring adverse drug reactions, checking drug interactions and counseling the patients, which is a worth full experience for the positive health care outcome. She is interested in Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance, Clinical Pharmacologist and Oncotherapeutics.

Depression having an onset usually during the first three months after delivery is called postpartum depression or peripartum depression. Major depression in women has a peak onset during the childbearing years. It affects the quality of life of the women resulting in strained relationship within new born and her partner. The study was designed to analyze the prevalence of postpartum depression, among newly delivered mothers on the day of discharge followed by four weeks after discharge using Edinburg Scale and to correlate the postpartum depression with the experience of breastfeeding and child birthing. A prospective observational study was carried out in the OBG department, in-patient ward of St. Philomena’s Hospital. The clinical pharmacist visited the OBG in-patient ward on the daily basis and enrolled the subjects according to our inclusion criteria. Every newly delivered woman was assessed for the postpartum depression by using Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) on the day of discharge. A total no. of 150 newly delivered women was included. A pilot study also carried out using various scale to select the suitable scales to be used during the study. EPDS score, breastfeeding and child-birthing experience questionnaire were used to assess the postpartum depression. According to the scale, 122 women (81%) were not found to be depressed and 28 women (19%) were found to be depressed. Women depressed were mostly found in between the age group of 20-30 yrs. followed by 21 women (39%) were between the age group of 21-25 yrs. 21 women (75%) had a normal delivery followed by seven women (25%) caesarean, among which 17 women (61%) had a first baby followed by 10 women (36%) a second baby. 16 women (57%) were graduated followed by seven women (25%) passed SLC, among them 51 women (54%) were working and 13 women (46%) were housewives. On the religion basis 18 women (64%) were Hindus and six women (22%) Islam. 15 women (54%) delivered a female baby and 13 women (46%) delivered a male baby. 3\4th of the women were without complications. And the breastfeeding questionnaire gave the result that 19 women (67%) experience painful child-birthing, nine women (32%) did not experience painful child-birthing and the child-birthing questionnaire showed that 22 women (79%) has a satisfactory breastfeeding followed by six women (21%) were not satisfied with their breastfeeding. It was observed only one-third of the women were depressed and majority of them overcome from the depression after the four weeks which we could identify in our follow up.

Saed Amarneh has vast experience in hospital pharmacy and is presently Director of Pharmaceutical Services at Laniado Hospital, Netanya. He completed his MSc in Pharmacy at Hebrew University (Jerusalem) and BSc at Jordan University of Science and Technology. He is especially interested in improving standards in the hospital pharmacy and introducing clinical pharmacy to all hospital departments. He has a number of publications reflecting his interests.

Statement of the Problem: Drug interactions (DIs) can be a major cause of illness, mask underlying disease, prevent patient recovery, and prolong bed occupancy. Presently, within this hospital, there are no standardized procedures to identify potential drug interactions, (PDIs), because there is no drug interaction software. Aim: To identify the incidence of some common PDI’s within the hospital and to influence prescribers’ actions to common PDI’s. Method: A selection of commonly used drugs known to have interactions with other drugs was chosen from a range of therapeutic groups. Pharmacists recorded PDI’s from selected hospital departments. Data was collected over an initial ten week period. Each department received a report showing the number of patient records checked; number of PDI’s; and if any action had been taken. Data was re-collected after a second ten week period. Findings: There was a significant increase in physician responses to reported PDI’s from period one to two. Departmental percentage increased and ranged from 33% to 77%. The average increase across the selected departments was 51%. The incidence of PDI’s over both periods remained relatively unchanged; 186 during period one (6.1% of records checked), 198 during period two (7.1% of records checked). Conclusions: The physicians’ responses have been greatly improved by a heightened awareness to PDI’s as a result of the mid-study report. We are unaware of the reasons for departmental differences in physicians’ responses to PDI’s and suggest this needs further investigation. The unchanged incidence of PDI’s in the second period is predictable because the majority of actions taken were only the physicians acknowledging their awareness of the PDI.

Wijdan H Ramadan is a full time Faculty Member at Lebanese American University - School of Pharmacy in Lebanon. Through her years of experience, she has developed and structured more than 17 pharmacy courses. She is the leader of community pharmacy practice; she has initiated, developed, and coordinated the Community Pharmacy Precepting Program (CPPP), discharge medication counseling rotation, and health awareness activities in all community pharmacy practice sites in Lebanon. She has published several papers in reputable peer-reviewed international journals; in addition to the posters presentations/research abstracts that were presented in international conferences. Moreover, she conducted numerous workshops in and outside Lebanon about counseling and over-the-counter products.

Statement of the Problem: Diabetic patient, both men and women, have an increased risk of dying from complications of cardiovascular disease. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends low-dose aspirin therapy (75-162 mg) as a primary prevention strategy in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) at increased cardiovascular risk. However, not all patients who are indicated are being prescribed low-dose aspirin. The purpose of the study is to assess the prevalence of aspirin use among adult diabetic patients in the Lebanese community. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Adult patients with DM from both genders presenting to 15 community pharmacies in Lebanon were approached to participate in the study. Over a period of eight months, 140 questionnaires were filled. Patient demographic information, past medical history, current medications, allergies, aspirin dose, and cardiovascular events were collected. The filled questionnaires were entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis. The evaluation of the aspirin use was based on the most current ADA-defined indication for aspirin use in diabetic patients. Findings: The majority of patients were males aging 50 years and above. Of the 140 patients surveyed, 115 patients (82%) were indicated for aspirin therapy. Among these 112 patients, 73% reported aspirin use based on physicians’ recommendations at appropriate doses; 79%, 12%, and 9% of patients were using 100 mg, 81 mg and 75 mg of aspirin respectively. Conclusion & Significance: A significant percentage (around 27%) of the surveyed diabetic patients were indicated for aspirin therapy but were not prescribed any which might lead to cardiovascular complications.