Evaluation of Pharmacy Students' Perception of Opioid / Opiate Dependence

Opioid-Related Disorders Clinical Trial

— STUD_TOX  

Official title:

Evaluation of Pharmacy Students' Perception of Opioid / Opiate Dependence: Cross-sectional National Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03859778
• Other study ID #: CHU-427
• Status: Completed
• Start date: January 14, 2019
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: February 2019
• Source: University Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The pharmacist in his professional activity may have to manage opioid dependent patients. This professional activity will result in the provision of opioid substitution treatment (OST), single-use syringes, harm reduction kits and a prevention advice for the reduction of toxicity and infection risks.

Since the 1990s, the consumption of OST has been steadily increasing. According to the OFDT (French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction), the number of patients under OST is about 150 000 patients. Since high-dose buprenorphine is prescribed for approximately two-thirds of patients, it remains the most frequently prescribed OST in France.

Recently, a French association assisting drug users (ASUD - Auto-support des usagers de drogues) performed a study in Paris (20/07/2018 - 25/08/2018) to assess the delivery of opioid replacement therapies by community pharmacists. In this study, 71% of pharmacists refused to deliver opioid replacement therapies. The main reasons reported were security (56%) and activity saturation, meaning that pharmacists considered that they had too many patients using opioid drugs. In France, the refusal of a pharmacist to deliver drugs is a punishable offence. According to the Code of ethics of pharmacists, pharmacists must respect life and people without discrimination. Pharmacists have a low perception of patients suffering from opioid addiction. Another study performed by ASUD in 93 community pharmacies, showed that pharmacists used the term "toxicomaniacs" instead of "drug users". Most pharmacists had had a bad experience with drugs users, with physical and verbal aggressions. The conclusions of this study showed that pharmacists lacked knowledge of drug users and drug use. Pharmacists knew about harm reduction kits for opioid users (containing sterile syringes, needles, water, antiseptics, etc.) and had already opened them, but very few knew how to use them. More worryingly, some pharmacists did not understand the harm reduction strategies available It thus appears that community pharmacists have a difficult relationship with opioid-dependent patients, even though these pharmacists have received education in the management of addictions during their studies. Indeed, it can consider that these courses should help to better understand the addictive disease both in its nosological / semiological and therapeutic components. Thus, it would be interesting to evaluate the impact of addiction education on pharmacists' perception of opioid dependence. In this perspective, it would be interesting to focus on pharmacy students.

The objective of this study will be to evaluate the perception by pharmacy students of opioid dependent patients. Investigator would like to know if pharmacy students consider opioid addiction to be an illness and whether having taken education on drug use and addictions changes this perception.

Description:

This observational and cross-sectional study will be conducted as a survey using the REDCap software and the response to this survey will be done online, in real time, with an automatic, secure and centralized data collection (CHU Clermont-Ferrand).

French pharmacy students will be contacted by email thanks to the student associations and scolarity departments. Answer to the survey will be done online.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 2034
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: March 31, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• French pharmacy students

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age <18 years

• Other health students

• Graduated pharmacist

• First year pharmacy student

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Opioid-Related Disorders

Intervention

Other:
• survey
French pharmacy students will be contacted by email thanks to the student associations and scolarity departments. Answer to the survey will be done online

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
France	Chu Clermont-Ferrand	Clermont-Ferrand

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand	UFR Pharmacie (Clermont-Ferrand)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

France, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Perception of opioid / opiate dependence as a disease	visual analogic scale: -10 (it is not a disease), 0 (neutral) and +10(it is a disease)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of courses on drug addiction during pharmacy studies	yes/no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Study year of courses on drug addiction during pharmacy studies	2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and/or 6th year of study in pharmacy	At day 1
Secondary	Perception of the pharmacist's missions on the dispensing of opioid substitution treatments (buprenorphine and methadone) and harm reduction kit / single use syringe	visual analogic scale: -10 (it's not normal), 0 (neutral) and +10 (it's normal)	At day 1
Secondary	Perception of the efficacy of opioid substitution treatments (buprenorphine and methadone)	visual analogic scale: -10 (it is not effective), 0 (neutral) and +10 (it is effective)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of realization of internships or temporary employment in pharmacy	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of delivery of opioid substitution treatments (buprenorphine and methadone)	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of tobacco (cigarettes) use	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of electronic cigarettes use	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of alcohol use	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of alcohol use (>10 alcohol units per week)	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of cannabis use	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Frequency of cannabis use (for users)	Daily, weekly, monthly, occasional or experimentation	At day 1
Secondary	Proportion of personal experience with a relative having or having had a problem of drug use	yes / no (percentage)	At day 1
Secondary	Academic year in pharmacy at the time of the answer	2nd / 3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th year of study in pharmacy	At day 1
Secondary	Estimation of attendance to courses	Visual analogic scale: 0 (no attendance) - 100 (full attendance)	At day 1
Secondary	Estimation of annual average mark during the past university year	<10, 10-12, 12-14, 14-16 and >16/20	At day 1
Secondary	Demographic information	age and sex	At day 1