Asthma Improves with Pharmacist Intervention

Pharmacists have a positive effect on helping patients control their asthma, a small British study has found. For the study, the researchers randomly assigned 24 asthmatics to either an intervention or a control group. All of the participants had their prescriptions filled at the same east London pharmacy. The participants in the intervention group received self-management guidance from a pharmacist, who had attended a 3-day asthma management course. Each of these participants received education sessions with the pharmacist that lasted up to an hour, and each was given educational materials. These participants also received follow-up phone calls once a week.

At the conclusion of the 3-month study, symptom scores showed improvement among the intervention group. Scores in the control group, however, ?marginally worsened,? according to results published recently in Thorax.