Many times we go to the pharmacy to ask for a medication and the pharmacist tells us that it can not be dispensed because it is a medicine that needs a prescription. Why do some medicines sell them to us and others need the doctor’s request?

Well, the use of medicines that need a prescription but that pharmacists dispense without it can cause serious health problems. It is very important to control the proper dispensation to avoid self-medication problems and ensure the proper use of medications .

To know if a medication needs a prescription, we must fix it on the package. A whole circle or divided in half must appear. It is advisable to pay attention to not over-the-counter antibiotics, nervous system medications, contraceptives and diuretics.

Antibiotics produce resistance due to their abusive use and others can trigger very serious problems and even death without proper management control.

On the other hand, as we well know, there are medicines that do not need a prescription, either because of their composition or administration route.

They are drugs that usually produce fewer health problems, although it is always advisable to ask the pharmacist for advice on its use to avoid side effects and contraindications. The professional has the duty to provide good pharmaceutical care to the patient.

A medical prescription

The medical prescription is, formally speaking, the legal document by means of which doctors prescribe medication to the patient for dispensation by a pharmacist. The doctor is responsible for prescribing prescription medications.

Prescription is a clinical process, individualized and dynamic. Despite its individual and unique character, prescription patterns can be strongly influenced by social, cultural, economic or promotional determinants.

This means that doctors can prescribe different drugs for a disease depending on the area where they are located and other factors, such as purchasing policies or promotions depending on the laboratories.

Therefore, the prescription is the document that supports the dispensing of medications that require a prescription under the medical prescription. There are some medicines that require another special recipe, psychotropic drugs and narcotics.

How is a recipe?

The word recipe comes from the Latin recipe meaning ‘dispensase’ or ‘take it’ . This document allows the dispensation of the medicines that need a prescription consists of two parts :

• The body, which is the part that goes to the pharmacist.
• The instruction handout for the patient, which can be separated from the previous one.

The legend appears on the package or packaging on the outside of the drug and in the package leaflet of the pharmaceutical specialties with a prescription or without medical prescription as necessary. In addition, it will also include signs and symbols that require the legislation of each country for identification and preventive purposes. These signs and symbols must also appear on the medication label.

Types of medications

We can classify the drugs in two large groups, on the one hand the medicines that need a prescription and on the other those that are over-the-counter and therefore do not need the doctor’s permission to be administered. In short we have that according to the need of medical prescription:

Medications with a prescription

These drugs must be controlled by the doctor, who is responsible for the decision to prescribe or not that medication. You should not insist on the pharmacy to sell a medication that requires a prescription because they can not be administered.

Within this group we can make a subdivision into the medicines financed by the state and those not financed:

• The financed: as the name indicates, the state participates in the financing of the same so that they are available to everyone. This way you will have to pay a part of the medication or even nothing.
• The non-financed: this case is the opposite of the previous one. They are not financed with public resources, for which reason the total amount must be paid to acquire this type of medication.

Over-the-counter medications that do not require a prescription

It is the task of the pharmacist to advise and dispense this type of medication looking for the good of the patient. Medicines that are not subject to medical prescription are included in the OTC category.

This is a classification that includes all the products that the pharmacy can dispense without a prescription, whether they are medicines or not. A curious fact is that it is allowed to advertise on these drugs and not on medicines that need a prescription.