Sarfaraz S, Jamil A, Yousuf M, Nisar A, Humayoun M and Tirmizi M
Background: Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a clinical practice, being done especially for monitoring drugs with narrow therapeutic index.
Objective: The aim of our study is to evaluate whether TDM is being practiced for anti-epileptic in paediatrics especially when a patient has undergone treatment with multiple regimes and also to check the awareness among laymen regarding dosing and quantity of medications and TDM.
Methodology: It is a descriptive cross sectional survey based study consisting of N=350 individuals out of which N=50 each doctors, nurses, Pharmacists=100 medical students and laymen each. This survey was conducted from different hospitals. The questionnaire contained 11 questions. The answers were recorded as open and close-ended.
Results and discussion: Our study showed that 74% medical population whereas only 14% of laymen population is aware about TDM. The awareness regarding seizure and its type is 84% in medical population and 11% in laymen population. According to medical professional, Febrile (47.60%) reported to be the most common type of seizures in paediatrics, Tonic clonic is 17.20% and Absence (6.40%) is reported to be least common in paediatrics, where as 60% of laymen population is not aware of any of them. 18.5% physician, 16.5% medical students, 13.5% pharmacists and 10.5% nurses suggest Diazepam to be drug of choice in febrile seizures where as 17% laymen also consider the same drug of choice. 86% pharmacist, 87% physicians and only 38% nurses agreed that TDM was followed during multiple therapy. 36% laymen were satisfied with dosage instructions regarding antiepileptics and 32% laymen usually divided tablet into 2 parts for giving dose to pediatrics.
Conclusion: From our result we came to conclude that TDM should be practiced while giving multiple regimens to pediatrics. Awareness programs regarding quantity and dosage of medications should be done in laymen population.