'Minor illness or major disease? Responding to symptoms in the pharmacy' (3rd ed), by Clive Edwards and Paul Stillman. Pp xiii+210. Price £19.95. London: Pharmaceutical Press, 2000. ISBN 0 85369 436 2.
Traditionally, community pharmacists have advised patients on the management of minor, self-limiting illness and have referred patients with other conditions to the general practitioner for management. However, this has changed in recent years due to the reclassification of medicines from prescription-only to pharmacy status. Pharmacists can now counter-prescribe for recurrent and/or persistent conditions that can be self-managed.
Pharmacists have to make daily decisions as to whether the symptoms presented are suggestive of a minor illness or a major disease. This new edition of 'Minor illness or major disease?' contains the same chapters (and essentially the same content) as the previous second edition with improved line drawings and colour photographs. It has been revised to include a summary of the warning symptoms for referral together with case histories for illustration. The case studies, based on real cases seen by the authors, are poorly written and add little to the publication. However, despite this, the book has been improved by the presentation, at the end of each chapter, of a summary of the most common conditions together with a précis of the warning symptoms for referral.
This third edition will serve as an excellent textbook for undergraduates and as a useful reference for community pharmacists.
Reviewer - Clare Mackie is professor of pharmacy and head of the school of pharmacy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen