Gastrointestinal disorders - Essay Example

Only 30% of the consumers are not the patient. These types of patients have low tolerance of pain and would resort to analgesics for pain relief. These patients have common complain of back ache or hip pain, headache, strains and sprains, osteoarthritis, sinus pain, fever, tendonitis, and tennis elbow. Generally, most of these patients asking for analgesics have no knowledge on the precautions, contraindications, adverse and toxic effects, tolerance, and physical dependence of the medications they requested.

All they know about is that analgesics provide acute and chronic pain relief. Patients who came in to the pharmacy requesting for OTC analgesics oftentimes think that it can be used anytime without acquiring the potential side effects of the medications. Other than that, these patients are anticipating that pain relief can be achieved through constant intake of OTC analgesics. These expectations are often not met by the patients. A careful titration of analgesics by the patient is required for an effective management of pain based on valid and reliable pain assessment and pain relief (American Society for Pain Management Nursing, 2009).

Over the counter analgesics are much exploited medications. These patients have no knowledge on the potential side effects of the medications they are taking. All they knew is that OTC analgesics provide pain relief. Research study carried on by the researchers in the US presented the potential risks of constant intake of non – prescription analgesics. Pain killers that include aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen have the capacity to increase high blood pressure and pose a great risk of myocardial disease in men (Reuters, 2007 cited in Harrell, 2007).

The pharmacist and pharmacy staff must discuss with the patient the appropriate pain medication that has to be taken, exact dosage of analgesics, and how to avoid exceeding maximum dose and potential drug interaction. To provide