Awareness and Knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorders Among Pharmacists: A Cross-Sectional Study in Palestinian Pharmacy Practice.
Most Palestinian pharmacists feel unprepared to counsel families on ASD medicines—screen for this gap before relying on pharmacy advice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Shawahna et al. (2017) asked Palestinian pharmacists about autism.
They used a paper survey in pharmacies across the West Bank.
No patient data were collected; the team only measured what the pharmacists knew.
What they found
Six out of ten pharmacists said they were not confident to counsel families about autism medicines.
Overall familiarity with ASD was low.
The authors call this a service-delivery risk.
How this fits with other research
Woodman et al. (2025) pooled 15 years of Saudi data and found the same thing: low pharmacist knowledge and high stigma.
Moon et al. (2024) show the fix: one U.S. clinic added a psychiatric pharmacist who gave 308 medicine reviews for 97 adults with IDD in only 20 weeks.
Obeid et al. (2015) add hope: a short online class cut stigma and raised knowledge among college students in Lebanon and the U.S.
Together the papers say: the gap is real, but training and role-changes can close it fast.
Why it matters
If families pick up risperidone or methylphenidate after your session, they will ask the pharmacist next.
A pharmacist who lacks ASD facts may give wrong advice or simply shrug.
Before you send parents to the drugstore, call ahead and ask, "Do you have someone trained in autism medicines?" If the answer is no, fax a one-page med sheet and suggest the free Autism Pharmacy Training module online. One minute of advocacy can save a month of confusion.
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Add a pharmacy-check step to your parent handout: "Ask if the pharmacist has taken autism-medication training; if not, show them your behavior plan and prescribed dose schedule."
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pharmacists are trusted and easily accessible healthcare providers. We assessed awareness and knowledge of symptoms, etiology, and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) among pharmacists practicing in Palestine. The pharmacists reported low familiarity with ASDs. The median score on the 12-item knowledge section was 50.0% with an interquartile range of 16.7%. Having course(s) or lecture(s) on ASDs during pharmacy degree program was significantly associated with familiarity (p value <0.001), knowledge (p value <0.001), and confidence (p value <0.05) scores. Nearly 62% of the pharmacists reported as not feeling confident enough in their ability to counsel parents about medications used for their children with ASDs and their side effects. This study revealed gaps in awareness and knowledge of ASDs among pharmacists.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3085-5