The Power of Pharmacists to Educate, Counsel on OTC Product Use | APhA 2025
Stefanie Ferreri, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA, discusses literature exploring OTC drugs, supplements, and devices used for non-prescription or self-care purposes.
It’s crucial for pharmacists to educate patients on the safety and efficacy of OTC medications due to their increased medication expertise compared with other health care providers, according to a session at the American Pharmacists Association 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition.1
“To me, these are exciting opportunities for pharmacists that we are having more and more [of],” Stefanie Ferreri, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA, said in a presentation titled Rockin’ Remedies: Your Annual OTC Update. “Self-care is expanding what pharmacists can do. It's not just nonprescription drugs; it's not just home medical devices, but now there's pharmacists prescribing of prescription medications.”
Pharmacists can be used for the management of OTC product use to improve patient outcomes, decrease adverse events, and increase pharmacy reimbursement. | image credit: C Daniels/peopleimages.com / stock.adobe.com
Amid a variety of self-care OTC products that Ferreri explored, as well as the evidence behind whether to recommend them, she highlighted pharmacists’ overall role within health care. With expertise in prescription drugs and their management, pharmacists have similar expertise on OTC products—products that many patients may bypass speaking to a pharmacist or health care provider about.
READ MORE: The Importance of Staying Informed on New OTC Product Releases, Recalls | APhA 2025
Before diving into evidence regarding multiple self-care products, Ferreri shared with her audience a vignette of a time her husband took a trip to the pharmacy for an ineffective decongestant. After walking into his pharmacy and getting it himself, Ferreri’s husband ended up purchasing an ineffective product without any consultation with a pharmacist.
While just an example of patients’ need to be educated on easily accessible OTC products, Ferreri highlighted how pharmacists’ expertise goes well beyond prescription medications. Pharmacists can be used for the management of OTC product use, which could result in improved patient outcomes, decreased adverse events, and increased pharmacy reimbursement in the long run.
“If you remember several years ago, vitamin D was all the craze,” she said.1 “Everyone was recommended to get vitamin D levels. Now there have been updates related to vitamin D for disease prevention. Screening is no longer recommended for prevention or anything related to prevention.”
Changes to vitamin D screening recommendations were only the beginning in regard to new OTC products and patient behaviors all pharmacists should be aware of. For example, Ferreri discussed the rise in e-cigarette use and how studies are gradually being released that show the dangers of e-cigarettes. She also discussed a specific finding that highlights the dangers of nicotine. Previous experts attributed cigarettes’ risks to all of the ingredients that make up the cigarette, besides nicotine. Studies are now being released showing poor outcomes among smokers to nicotine.
After touching on the dangers of nicotine and e-cigarettes, she then discussed updates in the OTC contraceptive space. Outside of OTC products, however, Ferreri mentioned the updated number of states (30) that allow pharmacist-prescribed hormonal contraceptives. Finally, she mentioned that only around half of US patients are concerned where they receive contraceptives, highlighting a unique opportunity for pharmacists to offer contraceptive care.
“I think this is another huge opportunity for all of us—we're passionate about this—to start educating our peers,” she said.1
She then pivoted to OTC naloxone. “We're the pharmacists [and] we understand,” Ferreri continued. “The people who are making the rules don't understand. They just see ‘OTC naloxone greater access,’ but they don't necessarily understand that that greater access now means that it doesn't go through insurance.”
Ferreri touched on analgesic toxicity for children taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen. With so much sensitivity to medications in the pediatric population, it’s crucial for pharmacists to observe each patient on an individual basis when considering the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for children.
Finally, she explored gaps in care for obstetric services, highlighting yet another area where pharmacists have the opportunity to expand their scope.
“Those services—while you're pregnant (educating about alcohol), while you're trying to become pregnant (ovulation test kits), or after you give birth (breastfeeding)—would be important services that if your pharmacy lives in an area with a lot of women who are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant, [these] would be good services to have,” Ferreri said.1 “If you're in an area where they're low income, or people fall in between the gap of not being able to qualify for Medicaid and don't have insurance, would be another huge opportunity [for pharmacy services].”
From OTC products everyone knows to those hitting the market in recent history, as well as the opportunity for pharmacist-led services, Ferreri explored a variety of evidence highlighting pharmacists’ expertise on these products. When it comes to medications and how patients’ bodies react to them, pharmacists remain the authority.
“I just want to make sure that everyone in this audience knows what power we have. We know the most about the medications, we know the most about insurance, [and] we know the most about formularies. The [physicians] don't know that. The people making the rules don't know that. So, we need to elevate that,” Ferreri concluded.1
