Clinical

You don’t notice it at first but you find yourself tripping over and falling a lot more – you can’t ever remember being that clumsy. Everything seems to take that much longer because your muscles don’t do what you...

Pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA) is a common presentation in a community pharmacy, with many patients seeking advice on complementary and alternative medicines that can relieve pain. OA is the most common form of arthritis in Australia, occurring in...

Key considerations and a recommended course of action when a pharmacist is asked to supply medication to a third party. Scenario: A 20-year-old man approaches a community pharmacist, requesting the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) for his 18-year-old girlfriend. The man tells the...

Dementia includes a range of neurological disorders characterised by memory loss and cognitive impairment. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50–70% of cases.1 In 2015 approximately 342,800 Australians were living with dementia, with this...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been ranked as serious a threat to society as terrorism. With millions of lives at risk, and trillions in GDP potentially lost, antibiotic misuse must be prevented to avoid widespread resistance. Today, no-one expects a scratch...

Local community pharmacists play a vital role in improving health outcomes for LGBTI people and people living with HIV. There has been greater recognition of the health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Australians among an increasing...

For many, the last 12 months of life is spent with significant disability, associated with rising symptom burden and functional decline. A palliative approach aims to ease difficult symptoms, encourage the best quality of life, and offer support for...

With over-the-counter (OTC) codeine products being upscheduled, pharmacists and pharmacy staff need to review and understand every patient’s pain. In doing so, there’s an opportunity to provide better care and develop deeper relationships with those customers. Much debate and uncertainty...

Schizophrenia is a chronic illness characterised by a range of symptoms including positive and negative symptoms. Examples of positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre and inappropriate behaviour. Negative symptoms include affective flattening, lack of speech, lack of motivation...

A 74-year-old man who had been self-medicating with antacids for recurrent indigestion consulted his GP when symptoms persisted for three months. After assessment, his GP prescribed a proton pump inhibitor and arranged review in four weeks. Two months later the...