Chapter 11

Consumer Behavior Regarding

The Coiche of Prescription

And Nonprescription Medications

After reading any magazine or newspaper or watching television for a few hours, one can easily
gauge the level of interest in health and medical treatment options in the United States. This growing
attention is a result of many factors, including the consumerism movement thah surfaced in the late
1960s, the generic drug scandal of the early 1980s. The growth of managed care organizations that limit
patient choice, the concern about spiraling health care costs, and the popularity of consumer-oriented
medical and helath publications. In reaction to the same social changes, the amount of control that
prescribers now wield in medication selection has declined, resulting in greater freedom for patients to
identify and select medical therapy options.

Traditionally, physicians were responsible for the evaluation and determination of appropriate
medical theraphy. Pharmacists might have suggested appropriate pharmaceutical alternatives, but
phisicians possessed final decision-making authority. Apart from their physical symptoms, patients rarely
influenced prescription drug selectiom directly. Today, in addition to more active pharmacists, many
patientsare unwilling to accept physicians decisions to use particular medications. A growing proportion
of patients want to understand both the healt-related and financial repercussions of medication use and to
choose whether to take certain medications based in complete information.

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Medication; to ensure that they know important facts about is use, such as administration, storage
instructions and common side effects; and to ensure that the medication selected is appropriate for the
patient given his or her health and concurrent therapies. When patients self-medicate with OTC or other
types of treatments, pharmacists still have an obligation to ensure that patients are informed and aware of
the consequences of their decisions. When discussing self-selected therapies with patienys, keep in mond
the information that is important to prescription medication users: product name, administration, dosing,
duration of use, precautions, side effects, contraindications, and storage. Remind self-medicators that
OTC medicines, especially Rx-to-OTC switchproducts, are just as powerful (and as dangerous) as
prescription medicines. As their pharmacist, you can help them understand the benefits and potential
dangers of self-care while still encouraging them to be responsible for their health.

Guidance and accurate information from a health professional are essential to improving
consumer medication behaviors. In practice, each person who wishes to self-medicate should be assessed
to the same degree that prescription medication users are monitored. This would include taking a patients
medictions use history, managing his or her educational programs.

Each helath professional should consider some additional guidelines whwn talking with current
and prospective self-medicators. Consumers should be taught
 Identify the problem as clearly as pssible (e.g., symptom state, condition, illness prevention) and
how to go about treating it, involbing a helath professiobal (pharmacist or physician).
Get information, seek acvive, and carefully read the labels of all medication the use.
Know the potential dangers (i.e., side effects, adverse reavtions, contraindications, effects from
long-term use, and possibilities of misdiagnosis) of the medications they use in any treatment
plan.
Self-medicate for only a short period of timr because most drug products intended for self-
medication are meant only for symptomatic relief.
Carefully consider promotional campaigns, reports in the media, and the general advice of other
people who are not trained or do not have personal experience in this realm: to now the quality of
their information source.

CONCLUSION

As the health care system changes, doctors lose prescribing autonomy, and patients demand more detailed
information about both traditional and nontraditional disease therapies. This, the processes by wichh
patients choose prescription and nonprescription medicines are changing. While pharmaceuticals are not
purchased in exactly the same manner as high-involvement consumer goods, the basic purchase process
(problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, and purchase) is identical. For
patients, however, the nature of their problem involves more emotions when they are ill than when their
television is broken, and drug information is less familiar and more confusing than a sales pitch for a new
Magnavox. As such, pharmacists play an important role in facilitating appropriate medical treatment and
self-care practices.

Pharmacists must be aware of the quality of health anf drug information thaht patients and
consumers receive from various sources, such as family members, the media, colleagues, other health
care professionals, and proponents of alternative therapies. Understanding how and why consumers
develop theit health attitudes and why they behave in certain ways will help pharmacists counsel patients
effectively. Finally, health care professionals must also respect the many types or nontraditional self-care
alternatives herbal remedies, holistic medications, and illicit subtances that patients will use. Many
consider these alternative treatment choices effective, safe, and reasonable for managing illnesses.
Providing objective, comprehensive, and accurate information is fundamental to ensuring that consumers
are making optimal self-treatment choices.