Factors predicting poor counselling about prescription medicines in Swedish community pharmacies.

Objective: To investigate predictors of 'no counselling', 'no questioning' and 'provision of no information' for three prescribed medicines in community pharmacies in Sweden.

Methods: One hundred pharmacies were randomly selected, stratified by size and location. Three simulated patients visited each with a prescription for fluoxetine, naproxen or metformin.

Provision of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists: a comparison across Europe.

Objective: To investigate the provision of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists across Europe and to examine the various factors that could affect its implementation.

Methods: A questionnaire-based survey of community pharmacies was conducted within 13 European countries. The questionnaire consisted of two sections.

Care ideologies reflected in 4 conceptions of pharmaceutical care.

Background: Different ways to practice pharmaceutical care have been developed. One expression of this fact is the existence of many different classification systems to document drug-related problems (DRPs). Evidence suggests that classification systems have different characteristics and that these characteristics reflect different conceptions of pharmaceutical care.

Comparing 4 classification systems for drug-related problems: processes and functions.

Background: Counseling patients on drug-related problems (DRPs) is a new enterprise for pharmacists. Accordingly, a variety of classification systems have been created to document DRPs. This aroused our interest in finding out how classification systems differ.

Developing the role of the drug and therapeutics committees: perceptions of chairs.

Purpose: According to Swedish law, every county is required to have a local drug and therapeutics committee (DTC) to contribute to safe and cost-effective drug use. The law presents merely a framework and gives no detailed instructions addressing, for example, organisation and methods. The aim of this study is to explore the variation of conceptions of the role of the DTCs among committee Chairs and to compare the results with an earlier study.

The role of drug and therapeutics committees.

Purpose: Improved quality and safety in drug use is a public health goal of major importance. In Sweden, local drug and therapeutics committees (DTCs) have adopted the task of working for safe and rational drug use. This study aimed to explore how chairs conceived the role of the DTCs, to explore how information officers conceived their own role, and to determine whether the respondents included patients in their answers.

Drug-drug interactions in the elderly.

Objective: To detect the frequency of potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in an outpatient group of elderly people in 6 European countries, as well as to describe differences among countries.

Data Sources And Methods: Drug use data were collected from 1601 elderly persons living in 6 European countries. The study population participated in a controlled intervention study over 18 months investigating the impact of pharmaceutical care.