Disease relevance of Pharmacies

• BACKGROUND: Many people with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Lima, Peru, seek treatment in pharmacies [1].
• METHODS: One hundred twenty Spanish community pharmacies recruited patients with migraine to whom they had dispensed almotriptan and rizatriptan [2].
• Drug costs to pharmacies for the topical treatment of tinea varied greatly--more than 14-fold (for 4-week courses, from $11.14 for miconazole to $156.72 for terbinafine) [3].
• CONCLUSIONS: Neither strategy was effective in improving the appropriateness of OTC management of vulvovaginal candidiasis by community pharmacy staff [4].
• Attitude to HIV/AIDS and drug misuse was found to be unassociated with previous experience of working in pharmacies supplying injecting equipment and prescribed methadone [5].

Psychiatry related information on Pharmacies

• Adult smokers presenting to community pharmacies in British Columbia, Canada, with an index prescription for bupropion for smoking cessation (N = 205) were eligible [6].

High impact information on Pharmacies

• MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of cisapride prescriptions or dispensing occurring during the same treatment period as a drug contraindicated at that time prescribed by the same physicians or dispensed by the same pharmacies [7].
• The Glasgow program required supervised consumption of methadone in community pharmacies for the first year and experienced significantly fewer methadone-related deaths than Edinburgh in 1997 (17 vs 30 deaths; P<.0001) [8].
• Retail pharmacies dispensed an estimated 4.4 million prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering drugs in 1978 [9].
• FINDINGS: Insulin was prescribed at 48 (19) IU/day and mean insulin collected from pharmacies was 58 (25) IU/day, 25 (28%) of the 89 patients obtained less insulin than their prescribed dose (mean deficit 115 (68; range 9-246] insulin days/annum) [10].
• Median price per pill of the two most commonly offered medications was 10% higher on the Internet (before shipping charges) than at Philadelphia pharmacies ($5.49 and $4.50 for sildenafil; $1.94 and $1.83 for finasteride) [11].

Chemical compound and disease context of Pharmacies

• The availability and cost of antibiotics for treating pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) were assessed in 17 drug-dispensing outlets in 5 districts of the Central Region, Ghana. The outlets included the dispensaries of 2 regional and 4 district hospitals, 4 privately-owned pharmacies and 7 chemical seller shops [12].
• RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were collected using an online questionnaire, which subjects were directed to by advertisements in pharmacies, a UK national newspaper, on the internet and information on the Migraine Action Association website and newsletters [13].
• We conclude that the community pharmacy is an easily accessible, well accepted, and effective site for cholesterol screenings; pharmacist interventions may help patients reduce their risk of coronary heart disease; and the pharmacy may benefit financially from an increase in dispensing lipid-lowering medications [14].
• An assessment of 26 patients, taking theophylline for COAD or asthma, was undertaken in a Belfast Community pharmacy [15].
• Because of the rarity and the poor prognosis of patients with PAH, as well as the requirement of close monitoring of bosentan (due to its potential of causing liver dysfunction and its teratogenic effects), bosentan is currently available only through a special access program and is distributed by certain selected pharmacies [16].

Biological context of Pharmacies

• No pyrimethamine-resistant genotypes (n = 58) were detected in Kolle, a rural village with a community-supported dispensary and clinic where PS is used sparingly and no PS was available in pharmacies or markets [17].
• Almost all pharmacies offer the same services: compounding, weight and blood pressure measurement, and cholesterol and glucose testing [18].
• MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Data were collected on each prescription for controlled drugs currently being dispensed by pharmacies to misusers, describing the drug, form, dose, source (general practice or hospital; and NHS or private), and numbers of dispensing pick ups a week [19].
• In Sweden, all pharmacies are owned by the state and all prescriptions and over-the-counter (OTC) products, such as antifungals, are registered in a database, which offers unique possibilities to study the epidemiology of VVC/RVVC [20].

Anatomical context of Pharmacies

• Sources of information about new patients were the Hospital Activity Analysis scheme, the MS Society of Malta, the records of the state hospitals, long stay private hospitals and nursing homes, lists provided by the state pharmacies, and magnetic resonance imaging, cerebrospinal fluid, and evoked response studies [21].

Associations of Pharmacies with chemical compounds

• Diversion of methadone was minimized by requiring supervised consumption in community pharmacies [8].
• OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of contraindicted coprescribing and codispensings, in which cisapride and a contraindicated drug were prescribed or dispensed to the same patient for overlapping periods, and the proportion of contraindicated coprescribing by the same physicians and codispensing by the same pharmacies [7].
• Actual payments (costs) were obtained from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and local pharmacies [22].
• Prescriptions for ferrous sulfate, 300 mg, were filled with eight different preparations by 15 pharmacies [23].
• Outcome measures were nonproblematic use (short term, within dosing guidelines), potentially problematic use (>120 days' use or more than twice the recommended dose), and pharmacy hopping (filling prescriptions for the same benzodiazepine in different pharmacies within 7 days) [24].

Gene context of Pharmacies

• Co-prescription of cytochrome P450 2D6/3A4 inhibitor-substrate pairs in clinical practice. A retrospective analysis of data from Norwegian primary pharmacies [25].
• APOM-project: managing change to the customer in community pharmacy practice [26].
• However, probably without exception, most pharmaceutical products can cause adverse consequences of varying severity and frequency.In the last 10 years, many medicines that were originally prescription only have now become available over the counter (OTC), either from pharmacies or other general retail outlets [27].
• Two male research assistants (one African American, one White) approached 33 of the area's pharmacies to buy syringes [28].
• RESULTS: A total of 31 pharmacies of the research network (response rate 86.1%) provided medication histories of 234 current users of cerivastatin and 431 matched patients using any other HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor [29].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Pharmacies

• METHODS: A cohort study including 3.5 months follow-up after the withdrawal of cerivastatin in August 2001 was conducted using data from community pharmacies in The Netherlands, covering a population of approximately 600,000 subjects [29].
• Although self-treatment of malaria with oral and injectable drugs purchased at stores and pharmacies is very common, less than 10% of the respondents were aware of the correct curative dose of chloroquine [30].
• DESIGN/SETTING: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a stratified cluster random sample of OTC phenazopyridine purchasers (N = 434) in 31 Los Angeles retail pharmacies over 5 months [31].
• The effects of the letter intervention in terms of dipyridamole expenditures (dollars reimbursed to pharmacies by Medicaid), expenditures for related drugs (aspirin, ticlopidine, sulfinpyrazone) and numbers of patients for whom dipyridamole was discontinued were examined across three experimental groups and a control group [32].
• Through a voluntary drug stability program, FDA selected 254 samples of epinephrine injection submitted by hospital pharmacies [33].

References