Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The use of over-the-counter drugs among surgical and medical patients

  • Pharmacoepidemiology and Prescription
  • Published:
European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

An increasing number of drugs are sold directly to the consumers without a prescription from pharmacies and from non-pharmacies such as supermarkets and gas stations.

Aim of study

To analyse the consumption of over-the-counter drugs (OTCs) among patients recently discharged from two hospital departments. Furthermore, to describe where the drugs had been bought and to which extent OTCs used prior to admission were recorded in the hospital files.

Method

Patients were visited within 1 week after discharge and interviewed about OTC use. Home inventories were inspected. Hospital files and discharge letters were examined.

Results

In totally, 83 surgical and 117 medical patients were included (n=200). Whereas the home inventories of 187 patients comprised 587 OTCs, 13 patients (7%) stored no OTCs. Of the patients, 134 (67%) used OTCs daily and 132 patients (66%) used OTCs on demand; 79 patients (40%) stored a total of 157 OTCs not currently used. Analgesics were used by 138 patients (78%). Acetaminophen was the OTC used most frequently. Of the 240 OTCs used daily, 238 (99%) had been purchased from pharmacies and 169 (70%) had been prescribed. Of the 430 OTCs used daily or on demand, 348 (81%) had been recommended verbally or prescribed by health care professionals. Among the 206 OTCs used daily prior to admission, 162 (79%) were recorded in hospital files, whereas only 41 (24%) of 173 OTCs used on demand were recorded.

Conclusion

Two of three surgical and medical patients use OTCs daily. Most OTCs are used with the consent of health care professionals and are purchased from pharmacies. Pre-admission OTC use is incompletely recorded in the hospital files. If information was systematically collected from pharmacies and general practitioners, the number of recall biases concerning OTC use in the medication histories may be reduced.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Cranz H (1990) Over-the-counter drugs. The issues. Drug Saf 5[Suppl 1]:120–125

  2. Lamy PP (1982) Over-the-counter medication: the drug interactions we overlook. J Am Geriatr Soc 30[Suppl 11]:S69–S75

  3. Kennedy JG (1996) Over the counter drugs. BMJ 312:593–594

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Blenkinsopp A, Bradley C (1996) Patients, society, and the increase in self medication. BMJ 312:629–632

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Sclar DA, Robison LM, Skaer TL (1996) Pharmacy consultation and over-the-counter medication purchasing outcomes. Over-the-counter medication intervention project team. J Clin Pharm Ther 21:177–184

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Barnett NL, Denham MJ, Francis SA (2000) Over-the-counter medicines and the elderly. J R Coll Physicians Lond 34:445–446

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Sihvo S, Klaukka T, Martikainen J, Hemminki E (2000) Frequency of daily over-the-counter drug use and potential clinically significant over-the-counter-prescription drug interactions in the Finnish adult population. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 56:495–499

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Honig PK, Gillespie BK (1998) Clinical significance of pharmacokinetic drug interactions with over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Clin Pharmacokinet 35:167–171

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Benrimoj SI, Langford JH, Bowden MG, Triggs EJ (1995) Switching drug availability from prescription only to over-the-counter status. Are elderly patients at increased risk? Drugs Aging 7:255–265

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Stoehr GP, Ganguli M, Seaberg EC, Echement DA, Belle S (1997) Over-the-counter medication use in an older rural community: the MoVIES Project. J Am Geriatr Soc 45:158–165

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Conn VS (1991) Older adults: factors that predict the use of over-the-counter medication. J Adv Nurs 16:1190–1196

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Antonov KI, Isacson DG (1998) Prescription and nonprescription analgesic use in Sweden. Ann Pharmacother 32:485–494

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Simons LA, Tett S, Simons J, Lauchlan R, McCallum J, Friedlander Y et al (1992) Multiple medication use in the elderly. Use of prescription and non-prescription drugs in an Australian community setting. Med J Aust 157:242–246

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Barat I, Andreasen F, Damsgaard EM (2000) The consumption of drugs by 75-year-old individuals living in their own homes. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 56:501–509

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Batty GM, Oborne CA, Swift CG, Jackson SH (1997) The use of over-the-counter medication by elderly medical in-patients. Postgrad Med J 73:720–722

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. WHO Collaboration Centre for Drug Statistics Methology (1993) Guidelines for ATC classification. World Health Organization, Oslo

  17. Hendriksen C, Lund E, Stromgard E (1983) Intake of drugs among elderly people in a Danish municipality, Rodovre. Acta Med Scand 214:67–71

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Lau HS, Florax C, Porsius AJ, De Boer A (2000) The completeness of medication histories in hospital medical records of patients admitted to general internal medicine wards. Br J Clin Pharmacol 49:597–603

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Stoller EP (1988) Prescribed and over-the-counter medicine use by the ambulatory elderly. Med Care 26:1149–1157

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Beers MH, Munekata M, Storrie M (1990) The accuracy of medication histories in the hospital medical records of elderly persons. J Am Geriatr Soc 38:1183–1187

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Akwagyriam I, Goodyer LI, Harding L, Khakoo S, Millington H (1996) Drug history taking and the identification of drug-related problems in an accident and emergency department. J Accid Emerg Med 13:166–168

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Gurwich EL (1983) Comparison of medication histories acquired by pharmacists and physicians. Am J Hosp Pharm 40:1541–1542

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Price D, Cooke J, Singleton S, Feely M (1986) Doctors’ unawareness of the drugs their patients are taking: a major cause of overprescribing? BMJ 292:99–100

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Ostrom JR, Hammarlund ER, Christensen DB, Plein JB, Kethley AJ (1985) Medication usage in an elderly population. Med Care 23:157–164

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Davies P, Fattah H, Clee MD (1994) Undisclosed self-medication—a clinical pitfall. Br J Clin Pract 48:333

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Dodd MD, Graham CA (2002) Unintentional overdose of analgesia secondary to acute dental pain. Br Dent J 193:211–212

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Hawton K, Ware C, Mistry H, Hewitt J, Kingsbury S, Roberts D et al (1996) Paracetamol self-poisoning. Characteristics, prevention and harm reduction. Br J Psychiatry 168:43–48

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Townsend E, Hawton K, Harriss L, Bale E, Bond A (2001) Substances used in deliberate self-poisoning 1985–1997: trends and associations with age, gender, repetition and suicide intent. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 36:228–234

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Dajani EZ (1998) Gastrointestinal toxicity of over-the-counter analgesics. Am J Gastroenterol 93:1020–1022

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Sleath B, Rubin RH, Campbell W, Gwyther L, Clark T (2001) Physician–patient communication about over-the-counter medications. Soc Sci Med 53:357–369

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Ejdrup Andersen S (2002) Health technology assessment perspective on prescription writing. University of Copenhagen, 2002

  32. Lau HS, De Boer A, Beuning KS, Porsius A (1997) Validation of pharmacy records in drug exposure assessment. J Clin Epidemiol 50:619–625

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Pharmacia/Pfizer for financial support and the nurses and secretaries at H:S Bispebjerg Hospital for their assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinic of Internal Medicine I, H:S Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Bente Glintborg

  2. Unit of Clinical Pharmacology H:S Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Stig Ejdrup Andersen

  3. Clinic of Abdominal Surgery K, H:S Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Eva Spang-Hanssen

  4. Department of Clinical Pharmacology Q7642, H:S Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kim Dalhoff

Authors
  1. Bente Glintborg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stig Ejdrup Andersen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eva Spang-Hanssen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kim Dalhoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kim Dalhoff.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Glintborg, B., Andersen, S.E., Spang-Hanssen, E. et al. The use of over-the-counter drugs among surgical and medical patients. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 60, 431–437 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-004-0780-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-004-0780-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation