WALKING AWAY??? Think again! Who really is to gain from the Pharmacist’s counselling?

Tales abound to the injuries attributed to DRUG MISUSE AND ABUSE. We have lives, fertility and huge finance lost to septic abortion, for young and mature ladies who tried an abortion adventure with Misoprostol and D & C.
There are countless tales of accidents, organ (liver & kidney) failures as well as detention at correction facilities (prison) attributable to abuse of controlled (hard) drugs. There are also many cases of depression, schizophrenia and other mental derangements that can be linked directly or indirectly to the misuse of great and useful drugs. All these happened because the victims refused to heed good counsel at one point or the other. As the holy books similarly instructs, oh that today, this word of counsel comes to you, harden not your heart! 

Every Pharmacist who makes effort to satisfy both his moral and ethical conscience by providing medication counsel to patients buying drugs from him be it at the hospital or community pharmacy will confess great difficulties they encounter with patients and clients to whom they try to counsel or provide certain vital pieces of drug information. Just tell me you don’t have the drug and stop this your plenty preaching, the client will say most times.

Many times, these pieces of information are capable of making the patient spend less even to achieve same or better results. Understandably, the Pharmacist may just be convincing the patient to buy an available brand of the same drug over the client’s prescribed drug. However, it is not the case all the time. It is important to listen to the Pharmacist sharing the information first, rationalize the content of the information without bias or prejudice to be sure that one is not running away from useful knowledge, only then can you be sure if the counsel is a sincere and gainful one or just a dubious self-seeking information.

It is also important to listen to the Pharmacist’s counsel for safety reasons. This is the same reason why it is very wrong to send little children who cannot translate both your intention of buying the drugs to the pharmacist and who can also not translate the counsel of the Pharmacist to you. A drug is not only recommended because it is effective but because it is equally safe for you in particular. A drug that is safe for a friend may be harmful for another. Why be in a hurry? You risk encountering harm from a good medicine simply because you were in a hurry to listen to the Pharmacist’s counsel. There is an unfortunate aspect of drug action: Drugs do not always have to act out their effects immediately, certain toxic effects take weeks to years to rear their ugly heads. Sadly, some of these bad effects like infertility come up when the reverse (fertility) is most needed (as in marriage) and put their victims in real hot soup.

So, when next you go to purchase a drug and the pharmacist gives you that little love-borne lecture, don’t just walk away. Think again; who is really to gain from the Pharmacist’s counsel? Certainly THE PHARMACISTS isn’t the primary beneficiary; the client is. 

Compiled by PHARMA-GUIDE NIGERIA TEAM

Photo credits: Pharm. Igala Steve Eze