Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33924074›Full record

ArticlePharmacy (Basel, Switzerland)2021

Medicines as Common Commodities or Powerful Potions? What Makes Medicines Reusable in People's Eyes.

Monica Chauhan, Hamza Alhamad, Rachel McCrindle, Terence K L Hui, R Simon Sherratt, Parastou Donyai

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Monica ChauhanReading School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AP, UK.
Hamza AlhamadReading School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AP, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-9309-4565
Rachel McCrindleDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY, UK.
Terence K L HuiDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-7513-1887
R Simon SherrattDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-7899-4445
Parastou DonyaiReading School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AP, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-5403-6170
University of Reading · GBZarqa University · JO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMedicines reuse involves dispensing quality-checked, unused medication returned by one patient for another, instead of disposal as waste. This is prohibited in UK community pharmacy because storage conditions in a patient's home could potentially impact on the quality, safety and efficacy of returned medicines. Our 2017 survey examining patients' intentions to reuse medicines found many favoured medicines reuse. Our aim was to analyse the qualitative comments to explore people's interpretations of what makes medicines (non-)reusable.

methodsThematic analysis was used to scrutinize 210 valid qualitative responses to the survey to delineate the themes and super-ordinate categories.

resultsTwo categories were "medicines as common commodities" versus "medicines as powerful potions". People's ideas about medicines aligned closely with other common commodities, exchanged from manufacturers to consumers, with many seeing medicines as commercial goods with economic value sanctioning their reuse. Fewer of the comments aligned with the biomedical notion of medicines as powerful potions, regulated and with legal and ethical boundaries limiting their (re)use.

conclusionPeople's pro-medicines-reuse beliefs align with perceptions of medicines as common commodities. This helps explain why patients returning their medicines to community pharmacies want these to be recycled. It could also explain why governments permit medicines reuse in emergencies.

Indexed as

attitudesmedicinesmedicines reuserecyclereuse

Identifiers

PMID33924074
PMCPMC8167579
OpenAlexW3154467549

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.