Drug Counseling: The Need for a Systematic Approach

Abstract

Objective

An approach to drug counseling that helps organize and standardize the documentation of a patient's specific drug-taking problem is presented.

Background

Patient counseling on the proper use of prescribed medications should be treated as a problem-solving session. The patient's underlying drug-taking problems may be complicated and deep-seated and may not be apparent unless specifically sought. This article introduces an approach that is intended to provide a systematic process for drug counseling: (1) establish a comprehensive, patient-specific database; (2) list patient-specific drug-taking problems; (3) provide counseling information and promote compliance; and (4) assess and monitor compliance. An important attribute of this approach is that it facilitates the dynamic nature of the counseling process.

Conclusions

This approach to drug counseling serves as a guideline for patient counseling. Additional experience with this system is necessary to determine its effectiveness at achieving the desired counseling outcomes.