Within Australia, vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements, essential oils, and homoeopathic and herbal preparations are collectively termed and regulated as Complementary Medicines (CMs) by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). CMs are predominantly self-selected through a pharmacy, providing pharmacy personnel an opportunity to engage with the public about their CM use. CMs are currently non-scheduled products in Australia. This review aimed to summarize the literature reporting the potential effect on pharmacies if scheduling of CMs was adopted, using codeine as an example. A scoping review methodology was employed. Seven databases were searched to identify four key concepts, including: CMs, scheduling and rescheduling, codeine, and pharmacists. Seven studies were included for analysis. The majority of the literature has explored qualitative studies on the perception and opinion of pharmacists in relation to the up-scheduling of codeine. The case of codeine illustrates the possible impact of up-scheduling. If CMs were to be up-scheduled, the accessibility of CMs would be limited to the pharmacy providing a role for pharmacy personnel, including both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to counsel on CM use. However, careful collaboration and consideration on how such a regulatory change would impact other key-stakeholders, including CM practitioners, requires both a strategic and collaborative approach.
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.