Today I had a lot of great counseling practice in. I counseled on various drugs and really became part of the pharmacy workflow. I counseled on drugs including but not limited to: antibiotics (doxycycline, clindamycine, azithromycin, etc), Depakote ER, alprazolam, and prednisone. It was a good opportunity to continue to work on my counseling skills as well as counsel on new drugs I haven't counseled on before such as Depakote. While here I did a review on Depakote so I felt confident counseling on the medication.
Important counseling points with Depakote:
- If ER formulation do not chew or crush, swallow whole
- If stomach upset occurs, take with food
- Drowsiness is common initially so it is best to avoid driving before you know how the medication affects you
- Common side effects include: stomach upset, diarrhea, hair loss, and ringing of the ears
- A more uncommon, but serious side effect is liver toxicity so it is important to inform the patient that the doctor should be monitoring the liver function
- Tamoxifen is a SERM and can cause some estrogen related side effects
- If upset stomach occurs take with food.
- Side effects of this medication include: hot flashes, menstrual changes, vaginal dryness, and other hormonal changes.
- In addition, there in an increased risk of blood clots with the medication so if the patient notices any shortness of breath or redness or swelling in the legs they should contact their physician immediately
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