Abstract
BACKGROUND: The well-known anti-seizure medication, sodium valproate, is used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and other mental health conditions. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine how pharmacist counseling intervention affected the prescribing patterns and usage of sodium valproate in patients with neurological diseases. METHODS: Patient prescriptions were analyzed in a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design research, at baseline and after three months of pharmacy educational intervention. Medical history, drug-drug interactions, antipsychotic combinations, medication errors, and dosages were among the information gathered. RESULTS: The reviewed prescriptions observed trend towards antipsychotic combination, 15 (2.5%) prescriptions had five medications, while 18 (3%) contained four, 169 (28.2%) containing three, 329 (54.8%) containing two, and 69 (11.5%) containing one, antipsychotic. Of the reviewed prescriptions, 6% had possible drug-drug interactions. However, following a 3-month pharmacy educational intervention, the tendency toward antipsychotic combination decreased significantly to 262 (52%) with prescriptions for 2 antipsychotics and 163 (32.3%) with 3 antipsychotics. Likewise, the decreases in medication errors related to frequency and dosage were 8 (1.6%) vs. 29 (4.8%) and 6 (1.2%) vs. 35 (5.8%), compared to baseline respectively. Additionally, medication adherence was raised significantly (p < 0.000) from 50 (8.3%) to 338 (67.1%) after the intervention. CONCLUSION: More precise regulations should be placed on sodium valproate prescription patterns and usage, throughout implemented pharmacist initiative in patients counselling, provision of health education and therapeutic monitoring to improve health-related quality of life. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on clinicaltrial.gov with an identification code NCT05830981. https://classic. CLINICALTRIALS: gov/ct2/show/NCT05830981 (First Posted: April 26, 2023).