More information required from Pharmacy on Complementary Medicine Interactions

An R&D project recently conducted by John Canning from PricewaterhouseCoopers, has shown, amongst other things, the need  for improved  communication about complementary medicines’ and their interaction with prescription medicines by pharmacy. 

The study showed 51% of participants chose to go to a pharmacist for future advice/information on minor ailments or chronic conditions in the first instance compared with 46% who chose to go to their GP.  Interestingly, a staggering 40% of participants were seeking information on OTC and complementary medicines.

With 49% of participants visiting pharmacy in the previous week and 82% going to the same pharmacy for most of their pharmacy needs, the leading factor was convenience across all age groups making pharmacy one of the first ports of call for a consumer’s health needs.

The study also found one of the key areas identified as a focus for community pharmacies, is the need for pharmacists to play a greater role  helping consumers better manage their medicines, including specifically possible interactions with prescription and over the counter medicines.  This can be expected to have an impact on the number of medicine related adverse events.

The full report can be viewed on http://5cpa.com.au/programs/research-and-development/current-projects/consumer-needs/

Further information on herb-drug, supplement-drug and food-drug interactions can be found on the Practitioner only resource IMgateway (www.imgateway.net). An initiative of UnityHealth in partnership with the School of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney.