ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2004
Remedy or cure? Lay beliefs about over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Access to medicines for acute illness and antibiotic use in residents: A medicines household survey in Sichuan Province, western China.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Challenges of tuberculosis management in high and low prevalence countries in a mobile world.Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group · 2014Article
- Access to medicines for acute illness in middle income countries in Central America.Revista de saude publica · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOver 500 million is spent in the United Kingdom every year on over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds. Evidence for their pharmacological efficacy is lacking.
aimTo examine lay beliefs about over-the-counter medicines for coughs and colds. To explore whether the distinction between symptom relief and cure has the same relevance to lay people as it does to medical professionals. DESIGN OF STUDY: Small pilot study using qualitative techniques.
settingVariety sample of 11 patients attending the National Health Service walk-in centre, Birmingham, England.
methodIn-depth semi-structured interviews, including pile-sorting and fictional case histories, were used to explore participants' beliefs about the effects of over-the-counter medicines on coughs and colds.
resultsEight of the 11 participants believed that at least one over the-counter cough medicine (most frequently Benylin for Chesty Coughs) could shorten, or "cure", an illness. Five participants thought that the majority of the medicines that they recognised would speed recovery rather than just relieve symptoms.
conclusionsThere is a common confusion in the lay person's mind between the ability of a medicine to relieve symptoms, and its ability to cure a disease or to hasten recovery. This misunderstanding may affect the demand for primary care consultations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
14965387PMC1314801W54786565What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.