Pharmacist's requirements for evidence-based self-medication guidelines].

Institut für Klinische Pharmazie und Pharmakotherapie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf. Anna.Laven@uni-duesseldorf.de

Medizinische Monatsschrift für Pharmazeuten 2013 Mar

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Due to the removal of many pharmaceuticals from the prescription requirement, self-medication implies an increasing responsibility for pharmacists towards their patients. The application of evidence-based guidelines could be a responsible basis for consulting in pharmacies. Evidence-based guidelines represent the systematically accumulated and evaluated facts (the evidence) of desired and undesired effects of pharmaceuticals in the population. We wanted to find out which interest pharmaceutical professionals have in evidence-based guidelines and which are the exact requirements on their content, deducted from public pharmacies everyday demands. With this purpose, three surveys were conducted between March and August 2012, in which 365, 350, and 486 pharmaceutical professionals participated respectively. The results show that pharmacy staff is very interested in evidence based guidelines. Furthermore, they suggest that the pharmacy staff feel safe with the self-diagnosis of the customer, with the consideration of limits of self-medication, as well as with the selection of the--according to own assessment--appropriate active substance. For the selection of the correct active substance, the following criteria are named: self-security in the counselling, first-hand experiences as well as the wish of the customer. At the same time, it is striking that the most frequent critique the pharmacy staff gets from pharmacy customers is the lack of effectiveness of the selected medication. With that in mind, it is possible that not the appropriate medication was selected, and the chosen criteria as selection method should be replaced by an evidence-based decision. Secondly, the results show that in up to 52% of the cases, depending on the indications, the participating consultants felt less certain to uncertain with regards to possible interactions or contraindications. Also in this context, it is desirable to prepare the existing data in such a practical way, that the pharmacies are able to apply them directly.

Citation

Anna Laven, Stephanie Läer. Pharmacist's requirements for evidence-based self-medication guidelines]. Medizinische Monatsschrift für Pharmazeuten. 2013 Mar;36(3):102-10