Four Consideration Before Prescribing

There is no standard therapy for all clients with different conditions. There are only guidelines. This is because the same disease may affect different clients differently. That means the choice of therapy will be determined by the client.

Choice Of Treatment/Therapy

There are three approaches to treatment or therapy. They are;

1. Medication

2. Psychology

3. Surgery

Diagnosis

Choice of treatment or therapy is determined based on so many factors. The number one factor is based on clients' complaints. The complaint is used for further diagnosis. A laboratory investigation may be initiated or an empirical treatment initially. Empirical treatment begins pending when a diagnosis will be made available from the laboratory because of delay in the result.

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After determining the disease type from patients' complaints or laboratory diagnosis, the next step is to weigh in on the best treatment approach. Psychologists take care of the psychology of clients. Medical doctors prescribe medication or perform surgery. Pharmacists are saddled with the responsibility of choosing the right drug.

Drug prescription

Drugs of choice are determined by available scientific evidence, drug availability and client data.

Scientific evidence is the research data available about the disease condition, drug information and other information necessary for treating such conditions. Drug availability is some of the drugs that can easily be sourced in the midst of many options. Lastly, client data include the age, gender, race, medical conditions, financial status, past medical and current medical history.

Scientific Evidence

After diagnosis, the prescribers start to scan for the available drugs used in treating that condition. For infection, they consider all the types of microbes responsible and drugs that can treat it. With that mental information, they pin it down to the next stage.

Drug Available

There are some diseases that have just one drug for its treatment. But the majority of diseases have a variety of drugs. The best available drugs are generally considered. Drugs are chosen based on how easily they can be sourced. Drugs that can only be bought from a few pharmacies are technically avoided except in very tight conditions.

Client Data

The age of the person will determine the dosage form in most cases. Children go with liquid preparation. Although, some drugs for adults are in liquid. Some adults make choices between solid dosage forms such as capsule, softgel and tablet.

Another information that helps to make an informed decision is client financial stand. Most drugs are expensive beyond the economic scale of some clients. However, a cheaper alternative can be of help.

Read Also: What medical doctors ask patients during diagnosis

The major consideration is drug compatibility. Some drugs can make an existing disease condition worse. Some have side effects or adverse effects which is worse with some conditions. Interaction with food, other drugs the client is taking together, contraindications and other factors must be put into consideration.

In antibiotics, a drug that is effective against a bacterial invitro may not show similar efficacy in vivo. This can be dependent on the absorption of the drug. For example, ampiclox is not suitable for upper respiratory tract bacteria infection because of poor absorption rate. However, most of those upper respiratory tract bacterial infections are susceptible to ampiclox in the laboratory.

Consideration For Prescribing

In summary, when prescribing the following are considered;

1. Host: this is the client data

2. Pathogen: the cause of the disease. It could be environmental, other drugs or microbes

3. Syndrome: the symptoms that differentiate it from other conditions

4. Drug: the choice of drug that can handle the disease with minimal side effects and fast disease healing at the client acceptability which includes type of drug, price, dosage regimen, etc.