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. 2025 May 12;15(5):e099801.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-099801.

How can community pharmacy teams prevent prescription and over-the-counter opioid misuse in North East England? A qualitative study using the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) model

Ogochukwu Fidelia Offu  1 , Daniel Okeowo  2 , Shelina Visram  3 , Adam Pattison Rathbone  2 , Laura Lindsey  2   3
Affiliations

How can community pharmacy teams prevent prescription and over-the-counter opioid misuse in North East England? A qualitative study using the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) model

Ogochukwu Fidelia Offu et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to identify factors that influence the role of community pharmacy teams in preventing prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) opioid misuse.

Design: Qualitative design using interviews; thematic analysis was used to generate themes mapped to the Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) model.

Setting: Community pharmacies in North East England.

Participants: 28 community pharmacy staff including 16 pharmacists, 1 pharmacy assistant, 10 dispensers and 1 pharmacy technician.

Results: Factors related to the capability component include communication skills, ability to identify service users who misuse OTC opioids, and education and training. Factors in the opportunity component include staff and funding, tools for identification and referral of service users at risk of opioid misuse, and relationship with other healthcare professionals. For the motivation component, attitude towards role, attitude of pharmacist or pharmacy manager, perception about commissioners and commissioned services, and attitude towards service users were identified.

Conclusion: This study identified factors that could influence community pharmacists' roles in opioid misuse. A critical factor influencing community pharmacy teams preventing opioid misuse is access to a single system to record the use of both OTC and prescription opioids. This would enable teams to identify service users misusing or at risk of misusing opioids, while supporting staff education and training and regulatory compliance. Future research should focus on developing interventions using these identified factors to enhance community pharmacists' roles in opioid misuse prevention.

Keywords: Pharmacists; Primary Health Care; QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

References

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