Short summary

Many patients who use pain medication, whether chronic or for relief, get little or no directions on how to properly use the medication compared to other medication types. This study tries to investigate this issue and determine whether they want counselling, if they use the medication as prescribed and try to unravel the indication "against pain".

Rationale

Pain medication is a complex area. Pain can be many things and therefore needs to be treated differently than other more uniform conditions. Chronic pain is rarely effectively treated with over-the-counter medications (e.g. Paracetamol) while they are excellent at immediate pain-relief. The Pharmacy plays a central role in counseling and advicing the patient on how to use the medication properly as often prescribed by the doctor. The problem is that many physicians write "for pain" as the indication, which means the pharmacy is often ill-equipped to guide patients properly. This study investigates if this patient group actually wants counseling and guidance on use of the medication, whether they use the medication as prescribed and to stratify the indication "for pain" to something more useful for the pharmacy.

Description of the cohort

All patients picking up medication (both prescription and OTC) on Ringe Pharmacy which is used against pain and is at least 18 years old as to include only legal adults.

Data and biological material

No data has been collected for the study, the study itself will generate survey data through RedCap.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Sygehusapotek Fyn

• Carina Lundby
• Anton Pottegård

Ringe Apotek

• Ehlimana Spahic