BMJ  2005;330:905-906 (16 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.905-a

Letter

Switching prescription drugs to over the counter

Willingness to buy statin over the counter is not related to risk of heart disease

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Appropriate self treatment is an important aspect of both the European and American healthcare systems.1 In August 2004 simvastatin 10 mg (Zocor Heart-Pro) became the first statin approved for over the counter sale by pharmacists for people at "moderate" risk of a major coronary event.2 Is this is another ill conceived example of "creeping privatisation" or a reasonable attempt to empower consumers?3 4


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  		Characteristics of people willing to buy simvastatin 10 mg, Bristol, August 2004

 

We compared the characteristics of people who when questioned expressed a willingness to buy simvastatin with those who did not. JQ, also a locum pharmacist, selected subjects who seemed likely to be among the target population as they entered one of three pharmacies in Bristol over 10 days in August 2004. An anonymised, self completion questionnaire was administered, with informed consent, to people who were not taking statins.

Four weeks after deregulation only one . . . [Full text of this article]

Jerry Quill, fourth year medical student, University of Bristol

jdquill@yahoo.com

Richard Martin, senior lecturer in epidemiology and public health

Richard.Martin@bristol.ac.uk Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR


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Relevant Article

Switching prescription drugs to over the counter
Joshua P Cohen, Cherie Paquette, and Catherine P Cairns
BMJ 2005 330: 39-41. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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