Community pharmacists' role in preventing opioid substitution therapy-related deaths: a qualitative investigation into current UK practice.

ABSTRACT: Background Opioid substitution therapy involves prescribing of medical substitutes like methadone and buprenorphine to patients who are addicted to opioids. The majority of opioid substitution therapy dispensing in the UK is done by community pharmacists and they often see the patients on daily basis. It is unknown to what extent community pharmacists implement the policy to prevent overdose in patients receiving such treatment. Objective To explore what UK community pharmacists think about their role in preventing opium substitution-related deaths, their understanding of the risks associated with this substitution therapy and their views on what else community pharmacists could do to reduce such deaths. Setting Twenty four community pharmacists from two areas in UK (Worcestershire and Bat

SUBMITTER: Yadav R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6509091 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature