Remedy or cure? Lay beliefs about over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds.

Background: Over 500 million is spent in the United Kingdom every year on over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds. Evidence for their pharmacological efficacy is lacking.

Aim: To examine lay beliefs about over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds.

Sharing resources to create a district drug formulary: a countywide controlled trial.

Background: Creating a drug formulary takes considerable time, but merely adopting one lacks local perspective and ownership. Sharing resources between several practices treads a middle path between these extremes, but is it effective?

Aim: The aim of the study was to audit the influence of a district primary care drug formulary on prescribing by general practitioners.

Method: A controlled trial was carried out to compare prescribing by 50 general practitioners from 11 urban and semirural practices in south Bedfordshire that participated in creating a district drug formulary with prescribing by all other general practitioners in the county.