A Meta-Analysis on Misuse of Prescription/OTC Drugs: How Pharmacist Can Prevent and Manage Drug Abuse

Background: Drug misuse is a critical issue related to both physical and psychological health associated with growing threats across the world. The role of pharmacist in preventing drug abuse is crucial to address prescription/OTC medication misuse. Aim and Objectives: To synthesize the research on misuse of prescription/OTC drugs, role of pharmacist in preventing and managing prescription/OTC medications induced health conditions and to provide methodological guidance for further research. Materials and Methods: Systematically searched epidemiological research on the topics relevant to the study through PubMed and EMBASE from 2017 to 2022 (n = 3022), studies are screened by title/abstract (n = 981) and full text articles are assessed (n = 153). The studies included for meta-analysis (n = 12) are selected by applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. STATA Version 17.0 is used to analyse the data. Results: Out of 12 research articles, 6 were conducted on misuse of prescription/OTC medications and another 6 were about prevention and management of the drug abuse by pharmacist. The researchers analysed data through odds ratio, 95% CI at p-value of 0.001* by plotting forest plot. The overall effect size is found to be 1.96 (1.21, 2.71) with 95% CI that shows association between drugs misuse and pharmacist role in drug abuse. Publication bias and Heterogeneity are graphically represented through Funnel plot and Galbraith plot respectively. Conclusion: The researchers concluded that the drug misuse is the global burden and pharmacist can endeavour to offer the management and prevention of drug abuse.