Community Pharmacy

Pharmacy students and pharmacists need to be able to identify common conditions, to distinguish them from other, less common ones, to recommend appropriate medications or to suggest referral to a doctor. To do this accurately, they need to understand which conditions are most likely to present in the pharmacy, to have an understanding of epidemiological data and signs and symptoms, and to be able to make a simple 'differential diagnosis' in the pharmacy. This new textbook provides a comprehensive, clearly structured and well-illustrated guide to differential diagnosis of symptoms that are commonly seen by the community pharmacist. Organised mainly by body system, each chapter begins with an overview of the system and a brief guide to history taking; then each symptom or condition is examined under the following headings: background, prevalence, aetiology, arriving at a differential diagnosis, questions to ask the patient, conditions to eliminate. The book also contains some unique features, such as algorithms to aid in diagnosis, summary tables on what questions should be asked and why, and lists of further reading and useful websites.