E-DRUG: Need for cough mixtures (contd.)
----------------------------------------
There is a lot of literature around showing that patients with
upper respiratory infections don't necessarily want a
prescription, what they want, and are satisfied with, is better communication. If health care workers are willing to take the
time to discuss why drugs are not needed then people are
generally more satisfied than if they had received a
prescription. Of course, this is not universal, but it suggests
to me that the real issue is educating health care workers:
1) not to prescribe because they feel that patients expect a prescription
2) to communicate better with their patients. This is not an
easy task but is probably the best long-term solution.
In the meantime should we have a placebo agent? I think that in
order to answer that question we need to know how likely is it
that health care workers will prescribe something inappropriate (costly and/or dangerous) and if health care workers don't
prescribe anything what is available over-the-counter and again
how costly and/or dangerous are these OTC medications. Depending
on the answers to these questions a placebo may or may not be necessary. If we are going to use a placebo then I would suggest perhaps dextromethorphan.
Joel Lexchin MD
121 Walmer Rd.
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5R 2X8
Phone: (416)-964-7186
Fax: (416)-923-9515
e mail: joel.lexchin@utoronto.ca
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.