Limits on Advice From Community Pharmacists and Referral to a Primary Care Practitioner

Self-medication is an increasingly common practice that carries risks. When a patient requests self-medication, the community pharmacist intervenes in the identification, prevention and resolution of medication-related problems. Previous work led to the validation of a reporting grid for pharmaceutical interventions and to the creation of a database of several thousand pharmaceutical interventions in self-medication. Thirty per cent of these are associated with a complaint of pain. Recording these interventions and following up on their outcomes, particularly when the community pharmacist is at the limit of their advisory role and referral to another healthcare professional is required, would help promote coordinated practice among primary care professionals and could even inform public health policy. The AUTOMED'IP-DOL study will test the introduction of a liaison form and a brief pharmaceutical follow-up interview for pharmaceutical interventions arising from a spontaneous request in a context of pain and leading to the patient being referred to a consultation with a healthcare professional. The aim is to compare the value of such a practice with usual care in the pharmacy, by assessing patients' pain levels, quality of life and satisfaction.