According to the health professional guidelines published for the safe use of medicines, we recommend that our patients, when purchasing over-the-counter medicines, inform the specialists about their complaints along five lines of questions, or ask for help in pharmacies. By discussing these, we, pharmacists and specialist assistants authorized to dispense medicines, can give extremely useful advice so that our patients become conscious consumers of medicines even without a prescription.
Everyone can find themselves in a situation where they need over-the-counter medicine. In the case of frequent complaints, the solution is simple, as it is worth choosing a well-known, already proven drug. The situation is more difficult if there are no or only rarely experienced complaints, because in such cases the selection of truly suitable over-the-counter medicines is far from an easy task.
Although they are medicines available without a prescription, you do not have to decide on their selection alone, as the specialists working in the pharmacies will help you!
You must be familiar with the phenomenon that when someone gets sick, friends and relatives immediately advise a wide range of options for self-healing. This advice is no doubt well-intentioned, but not necessarily effective. A lot of different advice can unfortunately have the opposite effect, as in the end you simply get confused about which medicine to buy at the pharmacy. And all this is only further enhanced by the fact that you can come across a lot of pharmaceutical advertisements, e.g. on TV, on posters, on the Internet.
In order for the treatment of symptoms to be effective and safe even without visiting a doctor, it is worth clarifying five basic questions when buying over-the-counter medicines in pharmacies.
We expect answers to these questions from our patients.
- With the right information, we help you choose a medication.
- In this way, you can avoid buying medicines that are not really needed (e.g. you don’t necessarily need all of the different medicines that can be used for the same complaints).
- In addition, we give advice on the correct dosage and proper use of the necessary medicines in order to recover as soon as possible (see My Medicines 5×M: What? Why? How much? When? How?).
- We try to warn our patients that e.g. in addition to their prescription drugs, what can’t be taken.
- We also warn them that relatively more frequent side effects may occur when using or taking an over-the-counter medicine.
- In addition to all of this, the most important thing is that, as a pharmacist, we refer our patients to a doctor if necessary!
Who will get the medicine?
For the buyer’s own part? Maybe for a child, an adult, an elderly patient or a new mother? The quality and quantity of the active ingredient suitable for the age groups does not matter, the professional decision is important! In addition, it is now possible to choose from a number of pharmaceutical forms for the most practical use for the given patient (e.g. tablets, capsules, syrups, suspensions, drops, preparations that can be taken without water, medicated plasters or rectal suppositories). In pharmacies, we help you navigate among them!
Exactly what symptoms and complaints will the medicine be used for?
Clarifying this in more detail will greatly contribute to the selection of appropriate medication, aggravation of complaints can be avoided, and recovery can be expected as soon as possible. By clarifying the symptoms, it can be revealed how long the affected patient has been feeling them, how serious they are, do they hinder their everyday activities? Do you have a complaint that you definitely need to see a doctor about?
Is it necessary to buy a new medicine?
It is of great help to us professionals if the patient tells us whether he has done anything in advance to alleviate his complaints. It may be that a treatment started with a medicine found in the home pharmacy will still be adequate, so there is no need to buy new medicines over and over again, in many cases even containing the same active ingredient, which can lead to an overdose of the given active ingredient. In this way, the accumulation of medicines at home can be avoided and the amount of medicine waste can be reduced. It is also important that if the unpleasant symptoms can be alleviated by eliminating the causes of the complaints, drug treatment is not necessarily necessary. Despite this, there is often a real need for a new over-the-counter medicine selected with our help and its correct use.
Are there any other medications you are taking?
It is important that the use of a new, over-the-counter medicine is safest if, as a pharmacist, we know what other preparations the patient is taking, e.g. taking prescription medications. A compiled list of medicines is perfectly suitable for reviewing this (e.g. filling in the table 5×M of my Medicines recommended in the previous sections). If this list is in the patient’s bag, we can quickly and easily take a look at it. In this way, unwanted interactions between prescription and non-prescription drugs can be avoided, as they can affect each other’s effects. In addition, it is also possible to avoid that a patient takes both prescription and non-prescription medicine for the same purpose, if he does not really need it.
Is there a drug sensitivity?
If any drug sensitivity is known, this may be due to the active ingredient of a product or its excipients, then this must be indicated before purchasing a new, non-prescription drug in pharmacies!
We know very well that everyone in pharmacies is always in a hurry, but we recommend that when buying a new, non-prescription medicine, it is really worth taking a few minutes to discuss the above questions. Moreover, practically the same questions are also important when choosing other preparations available in pharmacies, e.g. when buying food supplements. You can only get professional advice about these products in pharmacies, as they often contain the same or similar ingredients as medicines, and their use also requires awareness and caution with the help of professionals!
Dr. Orsolya Somogyi PhD
specialist pharmacist,
Chairman of the Professional Standing Committee of the MGYK
Video recommendation:
As a summary, watch a short video guide to buying over-the-counter medicines by scanning the QR code below! If you found it useful, check out the rest of the Conscious Medication Use series on the YouTube channel of the Hungarian Chamber of Pharmacists!
The article was published in Patika Magazin! Look for it in pharmacies every month!
Source: www.patikamagazin.hu
