Sharing and borrowing prescription medication: a survey of Irish college students

Goulding, Eimear; Murphy, Marie; Blasi, Zelda Di

doi:10.1007/s11845-011-0698-0

Cited by 23 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In some previous studies: lending medication appeared to be a rare phenomenon compared to borrowing 1,2,6,9,18. Some doctors indicated that drug sharing can be considered positive because a patient’s experience with an analgesic will facilitate the decision of whether the analgesic should be prescribed to them or not.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown that analgesics are among the top three medications most often shared among patients 1,2,8,9. In the study of Ward et al, 116 (18%) respondents declared that they borrowed prescription medication from others and 89 of them listed the names of medications received in this way; 42 respondents borrowed opioids and 25 NSAIDs 10.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Risks associated with borrowing and sharing of prescription analgesics among patients observed by pain management physicians in Croatia: a qualitative study

Markotić

Puljak

2016

JPR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundUnderstanding and improving patient safety is a key issue in medicine. One of the potential threats to patient safety is the sharing of medication among patients, which is a form of self-medication. This study analyzed experiences and attitudes of pain management physicians (PMPs) about sharing prescription analgesics among patients.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted by semi-structured interviews among PMPs employed in Croatian pain clinics. The study involved two researchers and 15 PMPs.ResultsAmong PMPs, 80% have seen patients who share their prescription analgesics with other patients for whom prescription is not intended. Most PMPs consider prescription analgesics sharing a risky and negative behavior. Some of them, however, found certain positive aspects associated to it, such as being a benevolent behavior, helping patients to get medications when they need them, and helping them cope with pain.ConclusionThe majority of physicians specialized in pain management encountered patients sharing prescription analgesics. Most of them considered this as risky behavior with a number of potential consequences. It has been noted that this problem is neglected and that physicians should inquire about medication sharing. Direct-to-consumers advertising was perceived as a factor contributing to such behavior. Patient education and more involvement of physicians in identifying this behavior were cited as potential remedies for preventing sharing of prescription analgesics.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks associated with borrowing and sharing of prescription analgesics among patients observed by pain management physicians in Croatia: a qualitative study

Markotić

Puljak

2016

JPR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Accordingly, this study could not relate the personal characteristics of participants to the pile sort results. The study did not examine sharing behavior and factors such as younger age, being female, poverty, chronic pain, similarity of illness, and familial relationships, all of which other researchers have associated with sharing medicines [3]–[5], [7], [22]. The convenience sample had more women than men, possibly creating a bias toward the responses of women, the ones more likely to share medicines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People may share medicines to avoid costs, for convenience, when lacking access to care, and when not feeling sick enough to seek a consultation [3], [5], [22]. However, medicines may also assume various associations and meanings which may provide people’s motivations to share [1], [13], [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing Medicine: The Candidacy of Medicines and Other Household Items for Sharing, Dominican Republic

Dohn

Pilkington

2014

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundPeople share medicines and problems can result from this behavior. Successful interventions to change sharing behavior will require understanding people’s motives and purposes for sharing medicines. Better information about how medicines fit into the gifting and reciprocity system could be useful in designing interventions to modify medicine sharing behavior. However, it is uncertain how people situate medicines among other items that might be shared. This investigation is a descriptive study of how people sort medicines and other shareable items.Methods and FindingsThis study in the Dominican Republic examined how a convenience sample (31 people) sorted medicines and rated their shareability in relation to other common household items. We used non-metric multidimensional scaling to produce association maps in which the distances between items offer a visual representation of the collective opinion of the participants regarding the relationships among the items. In addition, from a pile sort constrained by four categories of whether sharing or loaning the item was acceptable (on a scale from not shareable to very shareable), we assessed the degree to which the participants rated the medicines as shareable compared to other items. Participants consistently grouped medicines together in all pile sort activities; yet, medicines were mixed with other items when rated by their candidacy to be shared. Compared to the other items, participants had more variability of opinion as to whether medicines should be shared.ConclusionsPeople think of medicines as a distinct group, suggesting that interventions might be designed to apply to medicines as a group. People’s differing opinions as to whether it was appropriate to share medicines imply a degree of uncertainty or ambiguity that health promotion interventions might exploit to alter attitudes and behaviors. These findings have implications for the design of health promotion interventions to impact medicine sharing behavior.

show abstract

“…Few studies have examined sharing or borrowing of non-addicting prescription medications (references 1–6; reviewed in reference 7) and no study has looked at this behavior in patients with asthma. We hypothesized that medication sharing/borrowing would be common in families with children with asthma and be associated with worsened asthma control, and undertook this investigation to describe features surrounding this behavior and examine its effect on adverse asthma outcomes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence and characteristics of medication sharing behavior in a pediatric Medicaid population with asthma

Valet

Gebretsadik

Minton

et al. 2015

Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sharing and borrowing prescription medication: a survey of Irish college students

Abstract: Sharing and borrowing prescription drugs appear to be a common practice amongst Irish college students, who may underestimate the risks associated with taking these medicines.

Cited by 23 publications

References 14 publications

Risks associated with borrowing and sharing of prescription analgesics among patients observed by pain management physicians in Croatia: a qualitative study

Risks associated with borrowing and sharing of prescription analgesics among patients observed by pain management physicians in Croatia: a qualitative study

Sharing Medicine: The Candidacy of Medicines and Other Household Items for Sharing, Dominican Republic

Prevalence and characteristics of medication sharing behavior in a pediatric Medicaid population with asthma

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About