Over the counter medication
June 2005
Information for the public
Doctors’ and patients’ roles in the decision-making process have evolved over recent years to the point where patients will be increasingly encouraged to take more responsibility for their healthcare. There is discussion regarding this issue on the Resourceful Patient website [go to reference 6]. The site also highlights the amount of information now available, as well as ways of better informing patients with regards to OTC medication.
In order for the public to self-medicate well, to report perceived adverse events, and to answer questions on drug usage accurately, it is important that they recognise that OTC medicines can be as potent and potentially dangerous as any other drug. Much more information needs to be disseminated to the public about this. The environment in which OTC drugs can be sold, in particular those available from general sales outlets, and the trust the public has in the UK’s regulatory system, has resulted in a sense of complacency about the safety of OTC drugs. This leads to a general lack of respect for the medicine, an unwillingness to accept advice or supply controls, a failure to recognise an OTC medicine as a medicine, or to consider it as a cause of unexplained symptoms.
Ways of communicating information to the public include the NHS Direct guide, now included in the Thomson Local Directory and delivered to all households in England, websites such as www.medicinechestonline.com , and of course advice from professionals. The Medicines Partnership Initiative ( www.medicines-partnership.org) has also been instrumental in building relationships between the public and healthcare professionals, including initiatives such as the annual Ask About Medicines Week. In order for the public to be ready to provide the necessary information to pharmacy staff, so that they can support appropriate safe and effective OTC medicine use, they must understand the justification for this apparent breach of their privacy and self-determination. Likewise, they will need to accept the transfer of information about their OTC use to their clinical records. Health Promotion Departments and networks such as the NHS Public Health Practitioners and of course the community pharmacy network can also be used to inform the public. IT based options might include national and local government websites such as NHS Health Scotland, or equivalents in England and Wales.
Finally, it must be remembered that individuals will have differing information needs depending on both their demographics (for example age, gender and educational level) and the health item in question. These differing needs must be identified and met. The Resourceful Patient website is a good source for a discussion of these issues.
Footnotes
[6] www.resourcefulpatient.org