Exploring chronic pain in pharmacy

Last night pharmacists across the Kingdom of Fife and beyond congregated at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy for a special seminar on chronic pain management. The event consisted of talks from specialists and a series of workshops where pharmacists and other personnel discussed issues ranging from the effectiveness of over the counter medicines for pain relief to more complicated treatments through exploring a series of pre-set case studies.

What was so striking about last night was the diverse range of opinion and personal learning experiences that participants shared, particularly during the workshop sessions. It became clear to me personally that pain relief is not just some sort of an irrelevant issue that can be brushed aside in pharmaceutical care. There's much more to it.

For instance, one of the consistent highlighted issues that kept coming up was attitudes towards over the counter treatments. It became apparent to me that many perceive simple and basic treatments, such as paracetamol over the counter (or even in a GSL pack) as ineffective and simply because they were being sold without a prescription.

A former British Prime Minister once used an infamous catchphrase, "back to basics". And as far as pain relief is concerned, maybe it is time to head back to basics. Even us pharmacists should become more aware of the opportunity that may arise through speaking with our patients about their medicines, in the fact that all our patients may require is just a chance to put their concerns and thoughts forward about what they are taking and how happy or unhappy they are with the medicines they have been prescribed to achieve the desired therapeutic outcome.

Its amazing how much one can learn from even an event like this. None of us have seen it all and there is always an opportunity to learn something new. It was a terrific night and was especially fun talking with fellow pharmacists about their experiences as well.