Drug therapy problems identified among patients receiving antiretroviral treatment in a HIV clinic: a prospective study in North Central, Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: despite improved life expectancy for people living with HIV (PLWH), aging, comorbidities, and associated drug treatment increase the risk for drug therapy problems (DTPs). We assessed pharmacists´ identification and resolution of DTPs among PLWH. METHODS: a prospective study was conducted among PLWH aged ≥10 years (N=100) in a Nigerian HIV clinic. Trained pharmacists delivered a six-step intervention that included the establishment of patient-provider relationship, gathering and validation of patient´s data, identification of DTPs, intervention, outcome identification, and documentation. Descriptive statistics were used to examine data collected via a pharmaceutical care assessment tool. RESULTS: in all, 215 DTPs were identified and classified as unnecessary drug therapy [27.4% (n=59)], non-adherence [21.9% (n=47)], needs additional drug therapy [16.7% (n=36)], adverse drug reaction [(14.0% (n=30)], wrong drug [(10.7% (n=23)], and dosage variation [n=20 (9.3%)]. Within each DTP class, the most common cause was addiction/recreational drug use [39.0% (n=23)], drug product not available [63.8% (n=30)], untreated condition(s) [61.1% (n=22)], undesirable effects [66.7% (n=20)], condition refractory to drug [34.8% (n=8)], and drug interaction [45.0% (n=9)], respectively. The most common interventions were medication information/recommendation to patients/prescribers (30.4%) and initiation of drug therapy (22.2%). Six-month resolution rate was 90% (n=194) with the most common outcomes being improvement in patient adherence [23.6% (n=50)], addition of a drug [18.9% (n=40)], and reduction in drug overuse [15.6% (n=33)]. CONCLUSION: pharmacists´ intervention resulted in 90% resolution of detected DTPs, implying that pharmacists are crucial in improving antiretroviral treatment outcomes.