Background: Community pharmacists play a central role in the management of minor ailments and their clinical knowledge is vital in improving treatment outcomes of these ailments. The provision of minor ailment service in developed countries has been successful yet the practice in the Philippines has not been documented. Objectives: The aim of this study was to document the involvement of community pharmacists in the management of minor ailments, the practices, and the perceived challenges in the provision of pharmacy service. Methods: This was an exploratory descriptive study. Using qualitative research technique, a guided interview questionnaire was employed for data gathering. The practices employed and perceived challenges encountered by pharmacists were interpreted using conventional content analysis. Results: Colds, cough, skin allergy, diarrhea were the four most common ailments managed by community pharmacists. Pharmacists had underdeveloped roles in consultation. Community pharmacists were knowledgeable on the causes of the minor ailments and the medications dispensed were compliant with approved product indications. The absence of institutional guidelines (66%), lack of ailment-specific training (100%), insufficient clinical skills (76.7%), and a dominant patient self-selection behavior for OTC medicines (73.3%) were perceived as challenges in the provision of minor ailment services. Conclusion Community pharmacists managed common ailments with non-prescription medicines however consultation roles were found to be underdeveloped.
Pharmacists ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Philippines

The trend of using nonprescription substances for weight-loss management is common. There are several factors associated with the use of nonprescription substances. This study aimed to determine prevalence and factors associated with the use of nonprescription substances for weight-loss management among university students. A cross sectional study was conducted from August until October 2013 among 358 postgraduate students aged 22 – 45 years in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). A validated self-administered questionnaire was distributed by multistage sampling to the students. The prevalence of using nonprescription substances among university students was 27.9% (n=100). There were significant association between use of nonprescription substances with age (t=2.41, p=0.017), peer influence (t=7.06, p<0.001), media influence (t=4.38, p<0.001), marital status (t=2.41, p=0.017), BMI (χ²=23.72, p<0.001), body weight dissatisfaction (χ²=14.77, p<0.001) and experienced of conventional strategies (χ²=94.81, p<0.001). After controlling the confounders, BMI (Adj OR: 2.49, 95% CI: 1.42-4.36), peer influence (Adj OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03-1.15) and experienced of conventional strategies (Adj OR: 9.25, 95% CI: 4.95-17.28) were positively associated with the use of nonprescription substances. In conclusion, the prevalence of nonprescription substances use among university students is common among overweight and obese, had peer influence and experienced of conventional strategies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide university students with education and access to scientific and unbiased information of nonprescription substances.
Nonprescription Drugs ; Weight Loss ; Universities ; Students ; Malaysia

At present, the value evaluation of Chinese patent medicines is in the exploratory stage, and a clinical value evaluation system that can reflect the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine has not been established. This article investigates four universal drug value tools from abroad, namely, evidence rating matrix, cancer value label, patient-perspective value framework and multiple criteria decision analysis advance value framework. The evidence rating matrix is used to measure the benefits and risks of different treatment measures, and the net health benefit is used as the best estimate point to evaluate the value of treatment; the cancer value label is mainly used to weigh the economic value and innovative value of drug treatment programs of different anti-tumor drugs by matrix composed the ratio between the expected result and the cost; the patient-perspective value framework emphasizes the evaluation of the value of different healthcare intervention methods from the patient's perspective; multiple criteria decision analysis advance value framework measures the value of drugs or measures from multiple dimensions. Combined with the characteristics of the above universal drug value evaluation tools and the correlation research of domestic drug value evaluation, the paper proposes to analyze the characteristics of Chinese patent medicine value evaluation from the six dimensions of effectiveness, safety, innovation, economy, suitability and accessibility of Chinese patent medicine, and expounds the strategy of constructing Chinese patent medicine value evaluation tool, so as to provide reference for the drug value evaluation and decision-making application of Chinese patent medicine.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Nonprescription Drugs

The consistency of quality on Chinese patent drugs is a hotspot and difficulty in the control of traditional Chinese medicine preparations, and has become one of the bottlenecks restricting its internationalization. Based on the analysis of current studies on quality and problems of Chinese patent drugs, this paper explored relevant methods of quality evaluation on Chinese patent drugs and possible factors affecting the consistency of quality in the pharmaceutical cycle by consulting relevant literatures about quality evaluation methods and consistency control techniques of large-scale Chinese patent drugs. And it put forward the evaluation system on high-quality Chinese patent drugs with "consistency" as the core, so as to promote the overall improvement of the quality of Chinese patent drugs, guide the rational price of Chinese patent drugs of the same species, and provide a new reference model for the quality evaluation of Chinese patent drug.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Nonprescription Drugs

Chinese Pharmacopoeia is an important part of drug standards in China, and it is also a legal basis that must be strictly followed in drug development, production, operation, application, and management. The information on prescriptions, preparation methods, properties, identification, inspection, content determination, functions and indications, usage and dosage, precautions, specifications, and storage of Chinese patent medicine preparations included in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia(Vol.Ⅰ) was clarified. The "Preparation Method" section describes the preparation process of Chinese patent medicine from decoction pieces to finished preparations in detail and specifies the preparation production methods and parameters, which has a good guiding and standardizing effect on the production of Chinese patent medicine in China. The present study summarized the preparation methods of Chinese patent medicine preparations and single drug preparations contained in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020 edition, Vol.Ⅰ) in stages and analyzed the common preparation methods and technical parameters of Chinese patent medicine preparations, which is helpful to understand the current situation of Chinese patent medicine production technology in China and can provide references for the development of new Chinese medicine, the transformation of large varieties of Chinese patent medicine, and the optimization of preparation process of Chinese patent medicine in the market.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Prescriptions

The clinical application of Chinese patent medicines has suffered sever problems and required guidelines for clinical practices. Currently, the expert consensus method is more suitable for formulating clinical practice guidelines of Chinese patent medicines than the evidence-based method. However, there remain problems in the application of the expert consensus method. This study proposed a derivative expert consensus method--a method for formulating clinical practice guidelines of common Chinese patent medicines based on clinical practices, and introduced the method in terms of research thought, methodology and implementation procedure.
Evidence-Based Medicine ; standards ; Humans ; Nonprescription Drugs ; standards

Chinese patent medicine with double identity was a special phenomenon, and many preparations not only were prescription drugs but also over the counter ( OTC) drugs, which brought a lot of trouble. Based on statistics of list of OTC medicines of CFDA, related varieties, route of administration and functions of these drugs were searched. The causes of insufficient were analyzed and the potential risk was investigated. To ensure the safety of drug usage for the patient, risk management system should be set up by improving the technical requirements for registration, improving the drug labels and manuals, playing the role of pharmacists in pharmacy services and raising awareness of doctor and patient for these drugs.
China ; Humans ; Nonprescription Drugs ; adverse effects ; Risk Management

BACKGROUNDUnder the circumstance of the New Medical Reform in Mainland of China, lowering drug prices has become an approach to relieving increase of medical expenses, and lowering brand-name medication price is a key strategy. This study, by comparing and analyzing brand-name medication prices between Mainland of China and Taiwan, explores how to adjust brand-name medication prices in Mainland of China in the consideration of the drug administrative strategies in Taiwan.

METHODSBy selecting brand-name drug with generic name and dose types matched in Mainland and Taiwan, calculate the average unit price and standard deviation and test it with the paired t-test. In the mean time, drug administrative strategies between Mainland and Taiwan are also compared systematically.

RESULTSAmong the 70 brand-name medications with generic names and matched dose types, 54 are at higher prices in Mainland of China than Taiwan, which is statistically significant in t-test. Also, among the 47 medications with all of matched generic names, dose types, and manufacturing enterprises, 38 are at higher prices in Mainland than Taiwan, and the gap is also statistically significant in t-test. In Mainland of China, brand-name medication took cost-plus pricing and price-based price adjustment, while in Taiwan, brand-name medication took internal and external reference pricing and market-based price adjustment.

CONCLUSIONSBrand-name drug prices were higher in Mainland of China than in Taiwan. The adjustment strategies of drug prices are scientific in Taiwan and are worth reference by Mainland of China.

Single herbs and Chinese patent medicine preparations often have bad taste, such as bitterness and astringency, which is one of the key factors affecting patients' medication compliance, and would affect the therapeutic effect and restrict the extensive application in clinical practice. Therefore, how to make use of taste masking techniques to improve the bad taste of traditional Chinese medicines has become an important project. Through the collection and summarization of Chinese and foreign journals and papers in recent years, this paper discussed the generation mechanism of bitter taste, the new methods of masking bitter taste and the evaluation me-thods of bitter taste, in order to provide references for the taste masking of Chinese patent medicines preparations.
Astringents ; China ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Nonprescription Drugs/pharmacology* ; Taste

Zolpidem is a commonly prescribed hypnotic used to treat insomnia. However, its potential for abuse and dependence has recently become controversial. Although over-the-counter (OTC) medications are widely used, their abuse potential has not received much research attention. We report a case of comorbid zolpidem and OTC compound analgesic abuse. OTC analgesics may serve as gateway drugs, and physicians must be cautious about this issue, especially when prescribing hypnotics or benzodiazepines.
Analgesics ; Benzodiazepines ; Hypnotics and Sedatives ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders