The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7426 p572
11 November 2006

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· Pharmacy in Spain
· Controlled drugs
· Community pharmacy
· Prescribing
· Medicines use reviews
· Safety (2)
· Supermarket pharmacy
· The profession (4)
· The Council
· Statutory Committee
· Retention fee
· Section 60 Order
· The Society
· Pfizer products

Letters to the Editor

Safety

Protecting the public from paracetamol abuse

From Mr R. Wright, MRPharmS

Geoffrey Brandon’s letter (PJ, 4 November, p545 (PDF 40K)) says that the restriction of pack sizes of paracetamol has been beneficial in reducing mortality from over-dosage, but this restriction has not stopped potential victims of suicide from buying their requirements from many outlets. This often happens when they feel under stress and it is really a cry for help.

The Exeter branch of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society presented a motion (which was lost) to the branch representatives’ meeting in May 1997, that paracetamol on open sale to the public should contain the antidote, while the doctor could prescribe the antidote-free product on a named-patient basis.

We should endeavour to supply drugs in their safest form and we cannot say that a drug is safe when hundreds are dying every year through its misuse. The cost of producing a safer product in bulk would be in pence compared with the millions of pounds, which are now being spent on treating overdosage in the NHS, and administering a small pack system that is not effective in saving many lives.

Roy Wright
Ottery St Mary, Devon

Making sure patients take tablets correctly

From Mr R. J. Witthoft, MRPharmS

In the national news recently, it was announced that many patients crush their tablets before taking them, unaware of the inherent dangers in doing so. I refer mainly to controlled or modified release products where the balance of drug release is completely upset.

I would suggest to patients when encountering this difficulty that they try taking their tablets with a small amount of yoghurt, which is the ideal transit medium for this problem and will not interfere with the drug balance.

Robert Witthoft
Launceston, Cornwall

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