Abstract
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) recently published its 14th edition of the Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs: An Interactive Approach to Self Care. This latest edition focuses on a wide range of self-care options, including nonprescription medications, nondrug therapies, complementary and alternative therapies, and preventative measures. The editor’s goal for this edition was to produce an updated user-friendly reference that is helpful to all health care professionals and students. The primary aim of this edition, as outlined in the Preface, was “to assist practioners and students in developing problem-solving skills needed to (1) assess a patient’s medical condition; (2) determine whether self-care is appropriate; and (3) if applicable, recommend appropriate self-care measures.”
The overall strength of this textbook is the comprehensive approach to the subject matter. The majority of the chapters, including chapters in Sections II to IX, are structured in a similar manner allowing information to be located easily. Chapters on specific disorders, located in Sections II to IX, provide background information, epidemiology, anatomy, and physiology, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms of disorders, and complications. These chapters also provide treatment options that include nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic therapies, patient counseling, and patient education information. Each chapter contains treatment algorithms with exclusions for self treatment. This allows the practioner to quickly ascertain which patients may benefit from existing over-the-counter therapy. Patients that are excluded for self treatment would then be referred to their physician. Pharmacologic therapy suggestions include dosing and common product information. Compared to previous editions, the new case study format in the 14th edition is easier to assimilate and should provide the practioner or student with the opportunity to maximize their problem solving skills. The new format provides a logical stepwise approach to determining the best course of action based on a comprehensive list of therapeutic alternatives.
The text was well written and the tables, figures, and illustrations were helpful and formatted appropriately. The book is logically organized beginning with Section I (The Pharmacist’s Role in Self-Care). This section focuses on self-care and non prescription pharmacotherapy, patient assessment, multicultural aspects of care, and legal/regulatory issues. Differences in self-care practices based on ethnicity provide challenges to health care providers. Understanding the beliefs and attitudes of various ethnic groups is important in educating patients in self-care practices. This information is globally beneficial to students and practioners. Sections II to IX address different categories of disorders including pain and fever disorders; reproductive and genital disorders; respiratory disorders; gastrointestinal disorders; nutrition, ophthalmic, otic, and oral disorders; and dermatology disorders. The last two sections (Sections X and XI) focus on home medical equipment and complementary/alternative medicines, respectively. Each section is further divided into more specific topics each covered in chapter form. Each chapter provides an extensive reference list which may be beneficial to medical and pharmacy students.
Sections II to X provide the most relevant information to the clinician. Topics range from disorders commonly encountered (e.g., pain and fever) to less common issues (e.g., ostomy care and supplies). The inclusion of a broader range of patient self-care topics has made this textbook more useful than its previous editions.
Section XI of the textbook addresses Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a budding field of self-care in the 21st century. This section addresses botanical, nonbotanical, and homeopathic medicines. Inclusion of safety and efficacy information on complementary and alternative therapies is particularly helpful to the practioner as patient interest in these products has increased dramatically over the last five years.
Appendices I and II address medication risks associated with pregnancy and lactation, a new feature in the 14th edition. Appendix I provides an easy to read table of medications and their associated FDA Pregnancy Risk Category and Lactation Risk Category. Appendix II provides a list of botanical medications that should be avoided during pregnancy and/or lactation. The only criticism of Appendix II is the format of the table. Without the inclusion of gridlines in this table, it is difficult to align information from left to right in a given row.
The 14th edition contains seven new chapters that provide the student or practioner with timely information on emerging areas, specifically: Multicultural Aspects of Self-Care; Legal and Regulatory Issues in Self-Care; Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections; Cough; Intestinal Gas; Meal Replacement and Performance-enhancing Foods; and Nonbotanical Natural Medicines.
Overall, the majority of this textbook would benefit any clinician. This textbook successfully combines background information on disorders of adults and children and the corresponding medicines to treat these complications. The content of this textbook would greatly benefit beginner and intermediate practioners based on the extensive background material that is provided in each section. In general, the APhA recommends the intended use for clinicians, physician assistants, nurse practioners, and students in these fields. We agree with those recommendations.