Pharmacists

OBJECTIVE: To assess actions of community pharmacists in response to their patients' concurrent use of prescription medications and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). DESIGN: Nonexperimental, cross-sectional mail survey. SETTING: Texas. PARTICIPANTS: 107 community pharmacists. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pharmacists' self-reported rate of patient inquiry about CAM use and actions taken in response to CAM use.

OBJECTIVE: To assess actions of community pharmacists in response to their patients' concurrent use of prescription medications and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). DESIGN: Nonexperimental, cross-sectional mail survey. SETTING: Texas. PARTICIPANTS: 107 community pharmacists. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pharmacists' self-reported rate of patient inquiry about CAM use and actions taken in response to CAM use.

OBJECTIVE: To assess actions of community pharmacists in response to their patients' concurrent use of prescription medications and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). DESIGN: Nonexperimental, cross-sectional mail survey. SETTING: Texas. PARTICIPANTS: 107 community pharmacists. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pharmacists' self-reported rate of patient inquiry about CAM use and actions taken in response to CAM use.

BACKGROUND: Clinically relevant drug-drug interactions (DDIs) must be recognized in a timely manner and managed appropriately to prevent adverse drug reactions or therapeutic failure. Because the evidence for most DDIs is based on case reports or poorly documented clinical information, there is a need for better assessment of their clinical relevance.

The importance of the Genizah for the research of the medieval Mediterranean communities, supplying information on almost every aspect of life, is well known among historian. Less known is that pharmacy was the most popular of all branches of the healing art in the medieval Jewish community of Cairo, according to the Genizah manuscripts. Sources for study of medieval practical drugs are extremely rare since most records naturally vanish over the years, and only some medical books, which contained theoretical pharmacology, have survived to the present day.

SETTING: Since 2005, private pharmacies linked to the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) and the Municipal Health Department in Phnom Penh have referred tuberculosis (TB) symptomatic patients to public sector TB clinics. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the attitudes and practices of pharmacy-initiated referral service providers in Phnom Penh from 2005 to 2010. METHODS: In a qualitative study, participants were purposively selected from the register of pharmacy owners providing referral services. Discussions were conducted in Khmer by trained facilitators.

Annually there are 500 000 preventable deaths in the United States caused by smoking; as health care professionals, pharmacists have a unique opportunity to advise, assess, and assist patients to quit smoking. This review article provides pharmacists with a "toolbox" containing an overview of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic methods for smoking cessation. Currently approved over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications (nicotine replacement therapy, varenicline, and bupropion) are summarized, and nonpharmacologic therapies discussed include cognitive therapy and hypnosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use of artemisinin-based combination and monotherapy by community members and the administrative practices of health professionals in treating malaria in Ghana. METHOD: This study is a community-based cross-sectional survey in 11 rural and urban areas in southern Ghana. Using the interviewer method, close-ended questionnaires were administered to community members. Similar questionnaires were also administered in health facilities, community pharmacies and licensed chemical shops.

BACKGROUND: Malaria still remains a life-threatening disease worldwide causing between 190 and 311 million cases of malaria in 2008. Due to increased resistance to sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), the Ministry of Health in Malawi, as in many sub-Saharan African countries, changed the malaria treatment policy to use artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT).

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has urged all member states to deploy artemisinin-based combination therapy and progressively withdraw oral artemisinin monotherapies from the market due to their high recrudescence rates and to reduce the risk of drug resistance. Prescription practices by physicians and the availability of oral artemisinin monotherapies with pharmacists directly affect the pattern of their use. Thus, treatment practices for malaria, with special reference to artemisinin monotherapy prescription, in selected states of India were evaluated.