Tag: drug interaction

Can You Make Quitting Smoking Your New Year’s Resolution?

We hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year!  Now it’s time to decide on your new year resolutions.  We have one in particular in mind that we can help you with.  So consider taking on this resolution:  Quit smoking.  Or help a loved one quit cigarettes or other tobacco products.  

We all know smoking is bad for our health and the health of those exposed to secondhand smoke too.  Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Californians suffer undue illness and premature death from the use of tobacco products.

Did you know we can help you by prescribing nicotine replacement medications?  Not just the gum, lozenges, and patches.  We can also give you prescription-only nicotine replacement medications like the nasal spray and inhaler.

 You may have tried to quit before, and felt discouraged if you were unable to stay quit. You may wonder what services are available to help you quit, or if you want help to quit.  A new California law allows pharmacists to provide prescription nicotine replacement medications without a doctor’s prescription to help you quit tobacco. This increases access to these medications for you, and makes them more affordable. Counseling and medication options are effective on their own, but are even more effective when combined. When you are ready to quit tobacco, remember to ask your pharmacist for help.

You can book your appointment on our website or give us a call today!

Hope to see you in clinic soon!  

drug-interactions-with-tobacco-smoke

Tobacco smoke interacts with medications and affects the absorption, distribution, metabolism, or elimination of other drugs, potentially causing an altered pharmacologic response. Any smoker is susceptible to the same degree of interaction. Some of the most significant interactions are with the following medications:

  • Caffeine
  • Coumadin (warfarin)
  • Plavix (clopidogrel)
  • Hormonal contraceptives (birth control pills, patch, ring)
  • Clozaril (clozapine)
  • Lopressor or Toprol XL (metoprolol)
  • Zyprexa (olanzapine)
  • Insulin
  • Requip (ropinirole)
  • Chemotherapy: Camptosar (irinotecan) and Tarceva (erlotinib)

If you smoke and take any medications, we can review any potential interactions and make sure your dosages are appropriate and monitor for complications.

what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quittimeline-after-quitting

Will Pharmacists Give You Birth Control Without a Prescription? The Survey Says…

Leave a comment

For those who may have been following this blog since its inception, you may recall that I was conducting a research project with Dr. Rafie last year. We conducted a survey study to gauge pharmacists’ attitudes towards a recent California law that will allow pharmacists to provide hormonal birth control directly to women without a prescription.

Kevin Vu ACCP MeetingI recently had the opportunity to present my findings at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy. Held in San Francisco, this conference was a gathering of pharmacists from around the world and provided a platform for those in the field to network, share and exchange ideas, as well as learn the latest developments in the pharmacy world.

So what were some of the findings I presented from our survey of community pharmacists in California?

  1. Only half of the pharmacists were familiar with the new law that allows direct pharmacy access to birth control.
  2. Most pharmacists (about 70%) said they were very likely or somewhat likely to participate in this new service. It’s promising to see all the excitement and interest within the pharmacy community around this new authority! We are hopeful that this will manifest as lots of pharmacists actually providing the service when it becomes available. We don’t want women to have to call or visit multiple pharmacies before they find a pharmacist who can help them.
  3. The main reasons for why pharmacists said they wanted to participate in this service was that patients would benefit from improved access and that this service would foster increased use of birth control. This increased use and consistent use could eventually translate to fewer unplanned pregnancies, which currently stands at half (51%) of all pregnancies that occur in the U.S. every year.
  4. Nearly all (98%) of pharmacists feel comfortable intervening if they notice a patient had a drug interaction with their birth control. This is encouraging given that pharmacists are often seen as the final safety check when it comes to medications, ensuring that patients are getting medications that are safe and effective.

As the service is on the brink of being rolled out, I’m glad to say that some California pharmacists have already begun participating in training programs specifically aimed to help prepare them for participation in this service. With time, the hope is that patients and pharmacists across the country will recognize the value of direct access to birth control, and that other states will follow and adopt a similar authority.

KevinVuPharmDCandidate

About the Author: Kevin Vu is a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of California San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.