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Background: Incomplete and erroneous prescriptions affect the effective management of patients. The undergraduates of today are the physicians of tomorrow. Hence, the need for inculcating good prescription writing practice from undergraduate level to improve quality of healthcare. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a sensitization program on the effective prescription writing skills of second year MBBS students.Methods: This prospective study was conducted between January and November 2017 among 149 second year medical students. The prescriptions by students were assessed prior to and after a sensitization program which emphasized on the importance of each component of the prescription, need for generic prescribing and rational use of drugs.Results: After the sensitization program, there was significant improvement in mentioning of all components (p

Background: Achievement of goals of rational use of medicine (RUM) in the community is not possible without participation of community pharmacists. Pharmacists must know that they are the main tool to educate and spread information on rational use of medicine in the community. This background enabled this study to observe the knowledge, awareness and attitude of the community pharmacists towards the rational use of medicine. Aim and Objectives were to assess the knowledge and awareness among community pharmacists about rational drug use in and around Coimbatore.Methods: It was a cross sectional observational study using a preformed questionnaire. Study participants were 215 Community Pharmacists (those are registered pharmacist running standalone pharmacy stores not affiliating to any institutions /hospitals/not a part of a large chain of stores) inside (115 Pharmacist) and around (100 Pharmacist) Coimbatore city. Questionnaire was given to them and results were analyzed and expressed in percentage at the end of the study.Results: Comparing the awareness about RUM in the community pharmacists in and around Coimbatore was found with the results which was almost equal or less in terms of dispensing medicines without prescription, issuing medicines to outdated prescription, educating the public about ADR etc.Conclusions: This study ensure the need of the community pharmacist participation for the development of a clear educational policy on promoting rational use of medicine involving all segments of health care system to ensure the community benefit and safety.

Background: Asafoetida is an herbal food supplement that has numerous peripheral pharmacological actions. Its central nervous system effects have not yet been completely elucidated in both animals and human participants. The study focuses on deciphering the effects of this Herbaceutical with that of Donepezil and vitamin C in mouse models of short term novelty object recognition memory and open field test.Methods: The study was conducted in two stages - a pilot stage which assessed the most effective dose of asafoetida on cognition, followed by a post-pilot study phase wherein its effects at that dose were compared with those of Donepezil and vitamin C. Novelty Preference Test (NPT) on y-maze and Open field test on Open field box were used to evaluate the effects of the formulation on memory and motor activity in mice.Results: A dose of 400mg/day of asafoetida orally was found to improve memory significantly in comparison to 200mg/day in mice. Asafoetida showed a greater potency in improving memory than Donepezil and vitamin C. After 11 days of daily treatment with Asafoetida commercial powder, more than fifty percent of the mice showed an increase in recognition index of 0.7-0.8 as compared to 0.55 at baseline.Conclusions: Asafoetida powder has nootropic efficacy in mouse model - this has to be explored mechanistically and pharmaceutically to enable the psychopharmacological characterization of the active principles and its pharmacological effects in the central nervous system.