Over-the-counter counseling (or OTC counseling) refers to the counseling that a pharmacist may provide on the subject of initiating, modifying, or stopping an over-the-counter (OTC) drug product.[1] OTC counseling requires an assessment of the patient's self-care concerns and drug-related needs. The types of drugs that are involved in OTC counseling are, for example, used to treat self-diagnosable conditions like heartburn, cough, and rashes, though prescription drugs and professional diagnoses are also relevant to the recommendation process.[1]
Purpose
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The aim of OTC counseling is to empower patients to take control of their healthcare-related needs for conditions that do not require an appointment with a medical doctor. This benefits the healthcare system by reducing unnecessary physician visits.[2] The pharmacist can also use OTC counseling to ensure the highest likelihood of success for the patient's self-care attempt and minimize the risk of any drug-related problems.[3]
Although OTC drugs are generally regarded as safe for use without a prescription (by definition), medication errors still occur. For example, patients sometimes misuse OTC products by taking larger than recommended doses, in order to bring about symptomatic relief more quickly, or even intentionally abuse them for unlabeled indications.[4] Even when a patient is instructed not to use OTC products without speaking with their primary care physician, patients can still fail to identify products as OTC medications worth avoiding.[5]
Technique
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A pharmacist can use both open-ended questions (that start with the word who, what, how, why or where) as well as close-ended questions (that start with the word will, can, do or did) which are to be used only if the former do not get the appropriate response in order to obtain relevant information about a patient's potential needs for treatment or potential drug-therapy problems.[6]
Pharmacists ask patients about comorbidities to avoid any drug-disease state contraindications.[6]