Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the outcomes of pharmacist interventions in managing minor illnesses with non-prescription medicines. The Embase, LILACS, PubMed, Scielo, EBSCO and Scopus databases were searched for articles published from 1980 through December, 2010 with the search terms “minor ailments,” “minor illness,” “pharmacist,” “self-medication,” “pharmacist's role,” “self limiting conditions,” “community pharmacies,” “over-the-counter,” “pharmacy information” and “non-prescription drug.” The inclusion criteria were research conducted in community pharmacies, consumers of non-prescription medicines for the management of minor illness, pharmacist intervention for management of minor illness with non-prescription medicines and presence of questions that indicate management of minor illness. The initial search identified 1,290 publications. Of these, only 9 met our inclusion criteria. None of the articles defined minor illness and non-prescription drugs. Only 4 (44.4%) made any reference to pharmacist intervention. The most common pharmacist intervention was non-prescription drugs. Most of the studies evaluated pharmacist actions in providing appropriate care to consumers seeking non-prescription treatment for minor illness, the level of patient adherence and the impact of pharmacist counseling on the patient’s complaint. However, this research revealed that pharmacist interventions were scarce and even the articles that deal with this verified a lack of practical measures that indicate their impact.   

Key words: Pharmacist’s intervention, non-prescription medicines, community pharmacist, minor illness.