Percutaneous Delivery of Antihypertensive Agents: Advances and Challenges.

Hypertension remains a significant risk factor for several cardiovascular disorders including coronary artery disease and heart failure. Despite the large armamentarium of drugs available for the management of high blood pressure, low oral availability is an ongoing challenge. Researchers are constantly developing alternative drug delivery systems. This review focuses on the transcutaneous delivery of antihypertensive agents. The use of diverse technologies for the delivery of specific antihypertensive agents is emphasized. The advances made and the challenges encountered are highlighted. Several transdermal drug delivery strategies are employed for the transport of this group of therapeutic agents across the skin and the most widely used techniques include microneedles, iontophoresis, sonophoresis, and chemical penetration enhancers. Each of these methods has benefits and limitations, and there are ongoing attempts by scientists to address the shortcomings. For instance, skin irritation continues to be a major challenge with iontophoretic transport while the quantity of a medication that can be incorporated into dissolving microneedles is limited. With skin permeation enhancers, concerns relating to cytotoxicity and irritation are common. Even though the use of ultrasound is exciting, this mode of delivery is also accompanied by challenges such as the design of a battery system that is potent enough to drive a low-frequency sonophoretic cymbal array, while still being portable enough to function as a wearable device. Although most researchers report enhanced drug delivery with the aforementioned methods, it is important to deliver therapeutically useful doses of these medications.

Patterns of Prescription of Psychotropic Medications and Their Adherence among Patients with Schizophrenia in Two Psychiatric Hospitals in Accra, Ghana: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia are managed with antipsychotics and other psychotropic medications. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the commonly prescribed psychotropic medications for patients with schizophrenia, explore the types of therapeutic monitoring that were performed, and find out whether the side effects experienced by the patients played any role in their adherence behaviour. METHODS: This hospital-based cross-sectional study enrolled 259 patients with schizophrenia from Accra Psychiatric Hospital and Pantang Psychiatric Hospital. Data were collected on mental status, side effects, types of therapeutic monitoring performed, and adherence behaviour. RESULTS: Olanzapine was the commonly prescribed psychotropic medication. Most of respondents (73.4%) experienced mild levels of side effects. The negative effects were predominantly genitourinary (26%) and gastrointestinal (17.2%). Blood pressure and heart rate measures were the main types of monitoring performed but no measurement of drug levels was reported. About 98.1% of the participants poorly adhered to their medications and the major reasons for poor adherence were economic challenges, forgetfulness, and the feeling of wellness. CONCLUSION: Adherence to medication is a major health problem among patients with schizophrenia and there is a need to improve adherence and treatment outcomes.

Perceived stress and quality of life of pharmacy students in University of Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Stress among pharmacy students could greatly affect their learning activities and general well-being. It is therefore necessary to investigate how stress relates with the quality of life of students to maintain and/or improve their personal satisfaction and academic performance. A school-based longitudinal study was used to investigate the relationship between stress and quality of life of undergraduate pharmacy students. The 10-item perceived stress scale and the shorter version of the WHO quality of life scale were administered to the same participants at two time points i.e. Time 1 (4 weeks into the semester) and Time 2 (8 weeks afterwards). The correlations and differences between the study variables were tested using the Pearson's coefficient and independent sample t test. RESULTS: The mean stress scores were higher at Time 2 compared to Time 1 for the first and second years. However, there was no significant difference in stress for different year groups-Time 1 [F (3) = 0.410; p = 0.746] and Time 2 [F(3) = 0.909; p = 0.439]. Female students had higher stress scores at Time 2 compared to male students. The main stressors identified in the study were; large volume of material to be studied (88.2%), laboratory report writing (78.2%), constant pressure to maintain good grades (66.4%) and the lack of leisure time (46.4%). Even though most students employed positive stress management strategies such as time management (68.2%), other students resorted to emotional eating (9.1%) and alcohol/substance use (1.8%). At Time 2, perceived stress scores were significantly negatively correlated with social relationship (r = -0.40, p ≤ 0.0001), environmental health (r = -0.37, p ≤ 0.0001), physical health (r = -0.49, p ≤ 0.0001) and psychological health (r = -0.51, p ≤ 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The study reported significant correlations between stress and various domains of quality of life of undergraduate pharmacy students. It is thus necessary to institute some personal and institutional strategies to ameliorate the effect of stress on the quality of life of pharmacy students while encouraging the use of positive stress management strategies.