Pharmacy students’ knowledge in the use of glutathione for multiple sclerosis

Objective: To determine first-year pharmacy students’ knowledge of the role of dietary and herbal supplements such as glutathione (GSH) on Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Methods: Forty-two first-year pharmacy students were asked to complete an online survey to assess their knowledge of the use of GSH in the treatment of MS using Likert-scale type questions.
Results: Participants were given an optional survey which received a 100% response. The majority of the participants were between the ages of 24 and 26 (n=17, 40.5%), females (n=27, 64.3%); located in the DMV area and had a BA/BSc degree (n=34, 81%) before joining the pharmacy program. The majority of the participants had a full-time job (n=21, 50%) with over one-third with pharmacy-related jobs (n=16, 38.10%) and an annual income of <$10,000 (n=13, 31.0%). The student participants were asked five knowledge questions to analyze their knowledge of the use of GSH. The five knowledge questions were 1. Use of GSH to prevent MS-induced damage; 2. Free radicals as causes of MS; 3. GSH release in MS; 4. The beneficial effect of GSH in MS; and 5. Limitation of GSH in MS. A passing score of 75% or higher was achieved in only a small percentage of student participants (n=14; 33.3%). When asked the knowledge questions, more than seventy percent (70%) of student participants answered at least one of the questions incorrectly with an overall average knowledge score of 56.7%. Question #2 answered by most of them yielding a percentage of 76.2%. Student participants age 24-26 (n=15, 26.2%) significantly agreed to the same question (p-value = 0.007). A small amount of the study participants (n=13; 31.06%) who worked for 1-2 years also significantly agreed to question #3 (p-= 0.010). More than half of the participants between 21 to more than 29 years old and who had worked at least 1-2 years agreed to question #2.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that first-year pharmacy students have limited knowledge on the use of glutathione in the treatment of MS. On the knowledge questions, only a small number of participants received a passing score of 75% or higher. The average score was 56.7%. This signifies that there are many areas for improvement. The use of GSH is expanding its use from a dietary supplement to possible treatment of disease states such as MS. Students may have limited knowledge on the use of GSH may be due to lack of exposure in the pharmacy curriculum as first-year professional students.