Journal of managed care pharmacy : JMCP
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent mental health condition, occurring in 3% to 5% of school-aged children. Although stimulant medications are a recommended treatment for this disorder, physicians. views of these medications have not been systematically evaluated. ⋯ Although physicians overwhelmingly perceive stimulant medications as being effective for treating ADHD symptoms in children or adolescents, many would prefer a nonstimulant medication. While many physicians consider the side effects of the stimulants easily managed, others are concerned about prescribing stimulants because of their side effects, risk of diversion, and administrative burden. The majority of physicians would prefer to prescribe a noncontrolled medication without abuse potential instead of a controlled medication to treat children or adolescents with ADHD.
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Prescription review by pharmacists prior to dispensing is an important step in an overall strategy for preventing medication errors. Contacts with prescribers may be required to clarify missing, unclear, or inconsistent information. While essential to reduce the likelihood of potential patient harm, clarification contacts are time-consuming for pharmacists and prescribers. The scope of the issue and the factors that contribute to it are not well understood. ⋯ Prescriber clarification contacts are frequently needed to reduce the potential for medication error in the current prescription fulfillment process. While these contacts are necessary to clarify data elements essential to accurate medication dispensing, they are time- and resource-intensive. These study results suggest that alternate prescription order channels, including electronic, could reduce the sizable burden of prescription order clarification in mail-order pharmacy.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Patient-reported utilization patterns of fentanyl transdermal system and oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release among patients with chronic nonmalignant pain.
Although use of long-acting opioid analgesics has increased for chronic nonmalignant pain management, little is known about patient-reported utilization patterns. ⋯ Transdermal fentanyl and oxycodone HCl controlled-release both appear to be used by patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the standard recommendation in the manufacturers' PI;however, the difference between patient-reported utilization and the PI recommendation is more pronounced with oxycodone HCl controlled-release.
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To outline some of the causes of medication errors and recommend ways that managed care pharmacy organizations and managed care pharmacists can prevent some of these errors through practitioner and patient education. ⋯ Managed care pharmacy is well positioned to affect change in the health care system. Through information dissemination and education, managed care pharmacists should play a more active role in medication error-reduction activities by improving the patient education process and in assisting the pharmacy community in its goal of improving patient safety.