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. 2023 Mar 26;13(4):579.
doi: 10.3390/jpm13040579.

Use, Abuse, and Misuse of Nasal Medications: Real-Life Survey on Community Pharmacist's Perceptions

Elena Russo  1   2 , Francesco Giombi  1   2 , Giovanni Paoletti  2   3 , Enrico Heffler  2   3 , Giorgio Walter Canonica  2   3 , Francesca Pirola  1   2 , Giuseppe Mercante  1   2 , Giuseppe Spriano  1   2 , Luca Malvezzi  1   2   4 , Enrico Keber  5 , Sgcp, Corrado Giua  5
Affiliations

Use, Abuse, and Misuse of Nasal Medications: Real-Life Survey on Community Pharmacist's Perceptions

Elena Russo et al. J Pers Med. .

Abstract

Background: Medication overuse is an increasing global problem, especially for those rhinology diseases whose management requires over-the-counter drugs. This observational community pharmacy-based study aimed to investigate the actual use of the best-selling topical nasal medications and to characterize the clinical issues underlying their query through the pharmacist's perception.

Methods: In the pilot phase, a preliminary survey was developed by a team of researchers and tested on a small sample of practitioners to assess usability and intelligibility. Eventual amendments were made according to the feedback obtained, and the final version was submitted to practitioners working in 376 pharmacies evenly distributed over the Italian territory.

Results: Two groups of customers (18-30 years old and 60-75 years old) were the ones who most frequently purchased topical decongestants. The dosage applied for sympathomimetic amines was higher than recommended in up to 44.4% and the duration of use longer than 5 days in up to 31.9% of the cases. Patients' queries of alpha agonists and topical corticosteroids resulted in significantly higher numbers than practitioners' prescriptions. Allergic rhinitis was the most common disease affecting patients seeking sympathomimetic amines.

Conclusions: The prolonged use of sympathomimetic amines in patients suffering from rhinology diseases is a significant problem that requires greater attention in terms of social education and surveillance.

Keywords: allergic rhinitis; chronic rhinosinusitis; decongestants; nasal spray; pharmacy; topic steroids.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of the included pharmacies over the Italian territory.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Frequency of decongestant nasal spray use stratified by age groups. (B) Percentages of frequent users for each age group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Difference between pharmacists’ prescriptions and customers’ queries of decongestant nasal sprays stratified by type of molecules (* = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01).
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Frequency of use of topical sympathomimetic amines stratified by type of rhinology disease. (B) Percentages of patients for each disease category who use sympathomimetic amines more than 10 times/day.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Intake frequency (A) and duration of using (B) of intranasal sympathomimetic amines reported by pharmacists.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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