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Frequently Asked Questions
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Disclaimer
The information provided in an "as is" format, the
intention is to provide general information to some general questions, to
a very broad audience. The information has been provided by a
licensed pharmacist and all efforts have been made to ensure the
information is accurate and complete.
The information should not be used for medical
diagnosis, self-treatment of any disease, or to help mitigate
serious health problems, as every health concern must be treated with the
individualized attention from a healthcare practitioner.
Your particular health status, medical history, allergies and current
medications will all alter the appropriateness of the specific question.
Please, consult with your pharmacist or physician before undertaking
any treatment regimen.
Stafford Pharmacy & Home Healthcare will not accept
liability or responsibility for treatment results where the provided
information is used for the purposes of self-diagnosis or self-treatment
of any health related problems.
Please help us to make this a reliable, information
source. If you feel that information is not clear, is not accurate
(please state your reference), or misleading, we ask that you send an
e-mail to the
webmaster. We will make every attempt to answer your
e-mails but only if a reply is requested.
Stafford Pharmacy & Home Healthcare |
General Questions
| 1. What formal
training is required of a pharmacist? |
|
Pharmacy is a University level program, which in Alberta, is offered at the University of Alberta
as a four year Bachelor of science degree.
Prior to entrance into the pharmacy program, a minimum of one
year of science prerequisite courses must be completed (including
Chemistry, Biology, Math and many others).
Once accepted into Pharmacy, the program focuses on
teaching patient-centered care through with the use therapeutics based
lectures as well as providing hands on experience.
Students have the opportunity to work with patients in seminars
and labs as well as through work experience in both community and
hospital pharmacies. Each
student must complete 800 structured internship hours prior to
graduation.
The new program at the University is a module based
learning system in which each course focuses on a body system.
For example, in Cardiology, pharmacy students are taught the
basic anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system, disease
states, and then spend time learning the pharmacology and medications
used to treat cardiovascular disease.
Within each module case based seminars and practice laboratories
are used to enhance learning and allow for a practical application of
knowledge.
For more information on the Pharmacy program at the University of Alberta visit
http://www.pharmacy.ualberta.ca/
.
If you have any additional questions feel free to e-mail
Jaclyn at
jaclyne@ualberta.ca
[Jaclyn is a third year student at the University of Alberta, Faculty of
Pharmacy. She was kind enough to provide the response to
this frequently asked question, for which she is more than qualified to
address.]
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| 2. Not all drugs are found over the counter in Alberta - what
gives? |
| Drugs, when introduced to the Canadian marketplace are generally
brought into the marketplace as prescription medications or Schedule 1,
in Alberta. As we gain more experience with that particular
drug, the manufacturer may then choose to have the drug rescheduled from
that Schedule 1 to a Schedule 2, for example. This would make the
drug a "restricted access" product, where consumers can access the
medication, but will find the medication in an area of the pharmacy, not
accessible to the general public. A schedule 3
medication offers the easiest access, as it will be found in the
pharmacy, where it can be purchased without direct consultation with the
pharmacist. |
| 3.How to dispose of medications
safely. |
| As we all know, disposing of potent medications by dumping them into
the garbage or down the drain, will only see these medications
accumulate in our soil, water and animals that live in our environment.
In Alberta, we have a very valuable program called
EnviRx,
which organizes the collection and proper disposal of medications, with
many Alberta pharmacies acting as the collection depots.
That means Albertans can bring all their old or unwanted medications to
their pharmacy, where the pharmacist will collect the medications until
they are picked up by a contracted service, hauled to an approved
disposal site somewhere within the province and then incinerated at
extremely high temperatures. This results in the proper
destruction of all drug products, keeping our environment safe. |
| 4.
Future Question..... |
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Prescription Medications
| 1. How long is a prescription valid once it is first filled,
assuming it has additional refills? |
| A prescription can be honoured for a full 18 months from the time it
is originally filled. Even though a prescription may have
refills still indicated on the prescription label, the "legal" and
"usable" lifetime of that prescription is 18 months.
(This information is for Alberta, Canada only. Every
jurisdiction will have its own laws and regulations. Please
inquire of your local pharmacist for those rules specific to your local
area.) |
| 2. Why does the doctor often write a prescription for medications
that is known to be an over the counter (non-prescription)? |
| Although in the past, many insurance drug plans did in fact include
non-prescription medications within their drug benefits listing, today
it is more common to find that such non-prescription medications are not
covered at all. That being said, this medication still represents
a safe and effective drug that can have a very beneficial effective when
used properly. To ensure that the correct drug is obtained
by the patient, the doctor will commonly write a prescription for that
medication, including the dosing instructions. In that way,
the pharmacist can ensure that the drug therapy that the doctor had
requested is obtained by the patient, using the prescription as that
guide for pharmacist and patient. As a pharmacist, we think
this is an excellent practice. |
| 3. Medication Passport |
| Anyone who is taking any medication for a chronic health problem (eg.
arthritis, high blood pressure, angina, diabetes, asthma, etc.) should
carry a list of their medications with them at all times. Many
pharmacies now print up a current list of medications with the dosage
and dosing instructions, as a wallet card. Otherwise, there
are several types of Medication Passports or Journals available, that
allow you to do this yourself. Just think how valuable this
information could be to emergency personnel in the case of an accident
or if you had to visit the emergency department of your local hospital.
Emergencies aside, what about those visits to specialists, who may not
have the benefit of your current list of medications. So you
can see that a medication list is extremely valuable and could be life
saving. |
Non-prescription
Medications
| 1. How long do medications last after a purchase? |
| Every drug, every drug product, every medication sold
over-the-counter, as well as on prescription, has an expiry date.
This date is imprinted on the packaging, generally right on the
medication container. This expiry is the date before which
the medication will have the stated strength, will provide the desired
benefits and does this safely. Manufacturers will perform
stability testing on their products measuring potency and stability over
time. The expiry date is established as a result of this testing,
and is specific to every drug, every dosage form (tablet,
capsule, liquid, etc.),
under normal usage conditions. For some drugs, using the
product after the expiry date can expose the individual to harmful by
products of the medication's break down.
The rule is, only use
medication that has not exceeded its expiry date, disposing of expired
drugs properly. (see question #3,
under General Questions for proper disposal instructions) |
| 2. What is the best choice for children's fever? |
Over the counter (OTC) there are two ingredients that are
appropriate for use in the treatment of fever in children.
These are acetaminophen and
ibuprofen. The
acetaminophen containing products are represented by
Tylenol®,
Tempra®, Atasol®,
Panadol® and
many generic or private label brands.
The ibuprofen containing products include Motrin®,
Advil® and
private label brands. Both ingredients are considered
to be safe and effective when used to treat fever from various causes in
children.
Which product is the better choice really comes down to how each child
has previously responded to the medication in previous episodes.
In theory, both agents are equally effective, so that either drug would
be a good choice. The effectiveness will vary from child to
child, as one ingredient will provide better results in one child, as
compared to the use of that same agent in another child.
Unrelated to effectiveness, the slightly different dosing properties of
the two medications will see the acetaminophen being dosed every four to
six hours, while ibuprofen has a slightly longer action which means it
can be dosed every six to eight hours. That does not
describe effectiveness, simply different drug characteristics. As
well, acetaminophen is much less likely to cause any stomach related
adverse effects, and is therefore better tolerated by more children.
Ibuprofen, which certainly can be well tolerated by many children is
considered to be just slightly more likely to cause stomach related
adverse effects such as upset stomach, heartburn and stomach pain.
For that reason it is best to dose Ibuprofen with food, to better
prevent stomach related effects.
Where acetaminophen is not proving to be effective in reducing fever
symptoms, or the dosing interval proves to be shorter than four hours to
maintain adequate fever control, a switch to the ibuprofen ingredient
will often (not always) result in better fever control.
Remember, ibuprofen has substantial anti-inflammatory properties not
shared by acetaminophen which sometimes explains the better results
obtained with the use of ibuprofen. For fevers, that
are measured by body temperatures of less than 40°
C (~103° F), the use of acetaminophen as
first line treatment, is the better choice given this drug's long
history which has proven its effectiveness, tolerability and safety.
Acetaminophen can also be used in conjunction with many other
medications and in the presence of many other chronic disease histories,
such as asthma and diabetes. The use of either drug
should only be done after you have ensured that the child is NOT
allergic to the particular drug or had any previous history of an
adverse reaction. Repeated dosing, following appropriate
dosing guidelines should be continued for no longer than
48 hours, before consulting with a
Pharmacist or Physician to rule out serious infection.
Since Fever can be associated with such a wide variety of illnesses,
minor and severe, parents are always encouraged to consult with their
Pharmacist before using and to also obtain an accurate dosing guideline
given the child's age and weight. As well, the use of a
thermometer to accurately measure body temperature will provide
essential information for you, as well as the Pharmacist or Physician,
when consulted. It is a small investment that will pay
dividends many times over - so do not delay, purchase a digital
thermometer which can be used for oral, under the arm or rectal,
temperature measurement.
[Nov 8/07] |
| 3. Are the combination products safe? |
| Answer....pending. |
Questions About Compounded
Medications
| 1. What does it mean to compound a medication? |
| The Art and Science of Compounding, is one that belongs to the
pharmacist and has been so for hundreds of years. In fact,
the very first practices of early pharmacists were just that,
compounding medications for their patients. What that means, is to
prepare, to formulate, to mix, make ready from basic chemical
ingredients, a dosage form specific to the needs of a patient, as
ordered by a practitioner. That practitioner might be a physician,
a dentist, a nurse practitioner or a veterinarian.
What this then represents is the pharmacist or pharmacist technician
under the direct supervision of a pharmacist, preparing a unique or
custom dosage form for a specific patient to solve a specific
therapeutic problem. That is a brief explanation of the
process, but the "why" is a much more complicated answer.
Compounded medications may be the best choice when a commercial
product is not available, or the particular dosage form not available.
For example, a tablet dosage form may be available but a liquid format
not. Therefore, to properly dose a child, the pharmacist would
simply compound a liquid dosage form. That is a simple
example, and that example could also be a cream or ointment dosage form
that is not commercially available or not available in a particular
strength needed to treat a particular problem.
Where the compounding becomes more complicated and more
technologically complex is where a completely new or innovative dosage
form is desired, to solve a particularly challenging therapeutic
problem. In that case, the pharmacist must research the
problem, present a solution, formulate a new dosage form, and then
prepare the dosage form which could be a solution, cream, gel, oral
capsule, rectal suppository, eye solution or injectable solution, just
to name a few. The availability of so many innovative dosage forms
is due to the influence of new technologies, processes and training, not
previously available to the community pharmacist. An example
of "going back to the future", in a different sense. |
| 2. Future Question |
| Answer.... |
| 3. Future Question |
| Answer.... |
Alternative and
Complementary Medicines
| 1. Is Relacore®
safe to take and is it effective? |
| We have recently had several questions related to this product that
includes the claim to reduce "belly fat". Our investigation
into this product discovered that it was the number one selling "diet
product" as of June 26, 2006. That's a lot of bottles sold!
The company responsible for the marketing of this product is The
Carter Reed Company, one of many companies in some way related to
Basic Research of Salt Lake City, Utah. We stumbled on a small
discussion in Wikepedia (Follow
the Link) about this product. It quotes Supplement Watch, with
respect to its comments on one of the main ingredients, Magnolia
Bark, to say:
"... a small dose of honokiol, or a magnolia bark
extract standardized for honokiol content, can help to
"de-stress" you without making you sleepy, while a
larger dose might have the effect of knocking you out.
When compared to pharmaceutical agents such as Valium
(diazepam), honokiol appears to be as effective in its
anti-anxiety activity, yet not nearly as powerful in its
sedative ability." The focus on the Magnolia Bark
ingredient is because of the claim that Relacore
reduced cortisol (a hormone produced by the adrenal
glands in both men and women) which was linked to the
sole occurrence of body fat in women over 30.
There is no doubt that a compound with the sedative
potential of diazepam, could be an effective stress
reliever. Unfortunately, the link between stress
relief and cortisol reduction and belly fat burning,
isn't established. There is certainly a
large leap of faith that would have to be made to make
this mechanism work.
With this in mind, it is doubtful that Relacore can
deliver on its promise to specifically burn belly fat.
It may certainly have some valid pharmacological effects
but not the one it promotes.
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| 2. What value does CoQ10 have as a
supplement? Who might benefit from the regular supplementation
with this ingredient? |
| This question will be in answered in the near future. Watch
this space. |
| 3. There is lots of attention
being paid to "pro-biotics". What is it? |
| This question will be in answered in the near future. Watch
this space. |
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