A Patient With Acute Abdominal Pain is Referred to a Doctor as a Result of the Drug Indication Service in Costa Rica

An 18 year old male patient, with no relevant medical history, goes to the pharmacy with: asthenia, acute and severe epigastric pain, nausea lasting more than twelve hours. The patient requests the pharmacist on duty, as part of the minor ailments service, to recommend some type of medication for this type of pain. He mentions that he has used previous medications, by self-medication, without achieving benefit. As an intervention the pharmacist refers the patient to the emergency department, due to the suspicion of an insufficiently treated health problem that can endanger the life of the patient. The intervention was accepted and the clinical picture improved.