The Performance of Loghman-Hakim Drug and Poison Information Center from 2006 to 2008

Drug and poison information centers have a critical role in fulfillment of rational drug use programs. The Loghman-Hakim Drug and Poison Information Center (LHDPIC) has been established in 2006. The main mission of this center is to provide accurate, unbiased and up-to-date information on medications and poisons for the health care team and the public. This center has received more than 9000 telephone calls since its establishment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recorded queries in the LHDPIC in the past 3 years. A descriptive analysis was conducted on all recorded inquiries to the center from March 2006 to March 2008. Data such as patient age and sex, identity of the callers, question categories and information resources were obtained from the recorded calls and were analyzed. During the period of evaluation, a total of 9694 telephone calls were recorded. The patients' age ranged between 18-40 years old (49.42%) containing 61% female and 39% male. Most of the recorded calls were from patients' relatives (49%) and then the patients (45.2%) themselves. The most frequent questions were about drug indications (24%), adverse drug reactions (20.14%) and drug evaluation (17.64%). Antidepressants (12.42%), antimicrobials (12%) and analgesics (11.17%) were the most frequent drug classes that were inquired. The LHDPIC has an important role for providing of drug information for the lay public, but more efforts are still needed to encourage health care professionals to utilize services provided by this center.