Talk About Prescriptions

Many pharmacies have used these tools successfully to spread the word about new and existing goods and services. Newspaper, radio, and television advertisements are used commonly by pharmacies. Pharmacies also employ promotional tools such as telephone book listing, coupons, newsletters, brochures, prescriber and patient mailings, health screenings, and presentations to civic groups. Some pharmacies have worked with the media to inform the public about their participation in public health events such as the Great American Smokeout or Talk About Prescriptions month. 

Covington TR. Talk about prescriptions. Facts Compar Drug Newsl 1990 9 76-77. 

When people talk about pharmacy practice in diabetes care, the first thought that comes to most peoples minds is the community pharmacist dispensing a prescription for a blood glucose lowering medication. However, pharmacists are involved at a much deeper level in the care of patients with diabetes. In this article, examples of different ways pharmaeists arc involved in the care of patients with diabetes are provided. Resources to learn more about diabetes, as well as tools that will assist you in providing care, arc also indicated. 

All the clients in the MMT apply originally for the prescription of methadone. Most clients have to come to the clinic every day to collect their methadone. Clients are allowed to come to the clinic during a specified hour, every day, and about fifteen clients come during that time. We try to provide a motivational milieu in which these visits to the clinic can take place. In order to receive their methadone, clients have to pass through a space furnished like a living room and they can sit, talk, drink coffee/tea for an hour here every day. Two staff members are always present one, a nurse, in... 

Business Wire. Ten Things You and Your Family Should Know about the Dangers of Prescription Painkillers, According to the Waismann Foundation. Available online. URL http //www.opiates.com/media/ prescription-painkiller-dangers.html. Posted September 7, 2004. This document aims to help parents become aware of the risks of this major source of prescription drug abuse. It encourages parents to talk with children about the risks and to look for signs of abuse. 

If the objective of all this advertising is for patients to push their doctor to prescribe a certain drug, the effort has apparently had some success. A survey of 1,222 Americans by Prevention magazine in June 2000 found that 32 percent of consumers who saw a DTC ad—that s 54.2 million people— talked with their doctor about the medicine in the commercial. Some 26 percent then asked for a prescription for that medicine. And of those who asked, 71 percent walked away with a prescription. In the FDA surveys, about half said their doctor gave them a prescription that they requested after seeing an ad. 

The drug bupropion, sold as Wellbutrin SR and Zyban, is a prescription-only antidepressant that has been successfully used to help smokers quit. It targets the pleasure centers of the brain. Again, talk with your doctor about possibly getting a prescription to help you cope with the emotional components of quitting. 

There is only one broad contraindication. Patients taking the potent blood-thinning drug Coumadin (warfarin) by prescription from their physicians should not, under any circumstances, take omega-3 supplements. If you take those drugs, talk with your doctor about the safe consumption of fish meals. 

You are called by your medicines counter assistant to talk to a young woman who wants to buy a fluconazole capsule but has not had it before. When you ask her why she wants it she says that she thinks she has thrush. When you ask her how she knows, she says because her friend has told her that s what it must be. When you ask her to describe her symptoms more fully, she tells you that for the past 2 days she has had intense itching inside and outside her vagina. She also has a thick, creamy discharge, but there is no unpleasant odour. She experiences some burning on the outside when she passes water, but otherwise feels well with no fever or other symptoms, but she hasjust got over a nasty throat infection and about a week ago had a prescription for amoxicillin dispensed at your pharmacy. Will you sell her the fluconazole ... 

This one is different because I specialize in compounding prescriptions. That means that I can prepare customized formulas in precise doses to meet patients individual needs. In most pharmacies, the pharmacists do mostly what I call count and pour. That is, they prepare standardized doses of drugs. A lot of times, I work in partnership with a patient s doctor. He or she will ask my advice about medication. Besides suggesting alternative drugs or doses, I can talk with the doctor about methods of administering a drug. 

And that even before going home and reading about the latest unsafe prescription drug in the papers or talking to well-meaning acquaintances who just can t understand why drugs should cost so much ... 

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