Pharmacists in a community pharmacy may recommend an over-the-counter (OTC) drug to patients with headache. However, it is not clear how pharmacists should distinguish the symptoms of patients and facilitate appropriate self-medication. Here, we investigated the role of pharmacists in a community pharmacy in recommending OTC drugs for self-medication by patients with headache and elucidated their future needs using a questionnaire intended for doctors and pharmacists. More than half of the pharmacists surveyed did not have any experience with recommending OTC drugs for patients with headache. To distinguish between patients for whom pharmacists should``recommend OTC drugs'' and patients who should be encouraged``to consult a hospital or clinic,'' doctors thought that pharmacists should use an``assistance tool to diagnosis headache, such as a screener for migraine'' and``guidelines for chronic headache.'' However, few pharmacists used these tools. About 68% of doctors indicated that it would be``meaningful'' for pharmacists to distinguish patients with headache. Moreover, both doctors and pharmacists thought that pharmacists should provide patients not only with``instruction on the use of drugs'' but also suggest``when to consult a hospital or clinic.'' However, 32% of doctors indicated that it is``meaningless'' for pharmacists to attempt to distinguish patients with headache and expressed concern about the increase of patients who overuse headache medication. Theseˆndings provide useful information to guide pharmacists in community pharmacy when recommending OTC drugs for self-medication by patients with headache.
It is often noted that the collaboration of hospital-to-hospital, hospital-to-clinic and clinic-to-clinic in medical care for patients with headache is important. However, the role of community pharmacies in the medical network for consultation of patients with headache is not clear. Here, we investigated the role of pharmacists in a community pharmacy in encouraging patients with headache to undergo medical examination and elucidated their future needs using a questionnaire intended for doctors and pharmacists. About 70% of pharmacists had experience with recommending that patients with headache consult a hospital. However, only 17% of doctors had experience with referral of patients with headache by pharmacists in a community pharmacy. About 22% of pharmacists had experiences in which the patient with headache refused to consult a hospital despite the recommendation, suggesting that many patients did not think that their headache symptoms were severe. In addition, 90% of doctors and 84% of pharmacists felt the need for collaboration between hospitals or clinics and community pharmacies. Doctors needed information from pharmacists on thè`c urrent state of drugs'' taken by patients. However, pharmacists considered that they needed to provide not only``current state of drugs being taken'' but also``symptoms of headache'' to doctors. Although 67% of doctors considered the medication notebook to be useful for pharmacists to provide patient information to doctors, pharmacists preferred to provide the information by telephone. Moreover, 56% of pharmacists did not know how to search a website for medical specialists in headache. A medical network including not only hospitals or clinics but also community pharmacies might be useful for patients with headache.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.