Mental disorders are a significant clinical and economic burden in the world, which means that the role of the pharmacist in the treatment process is very important. The greatest challenge within the elderly population is the treatment of patients with comorbidity and polypharmacotherapy. Despite the widely known efficacy of pharmacist interventions, there is a lack of long-term research in this field. In Slovenia, the adoption of the new healthcare service Pharmaceutical Counseling presents an opportunity for direct cooperation between a physician and a consultant pharmacist in a primary health center. However, long-term effects of such cooperation have not been well researched yet.
The aim of the study was to clinically evaluate whether direct involvement of a consultant pharmacist in the treatment process can have a long-term impact on the quality of medication prescribing in elderly patients with mental disorders and polypharmacotherapy.
We conducted a non-interventional, retrospective and observational cohort study that included patients from the area covered by the Ljutomer primary health center who were referred to a pharmacist consultant's setting during a two-year time period. Patients were at least 65 years old at the time of examination and were receiving five or more active substances at the same time, including at least one psychotropic. The impact of the consultant pharmacist on treatment guidelines adherence was evaluated with binary logistic regression. The pharmacotherapy was evaluated on the basis of current treatment guidelines, while potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) for the elderly were detected with the Priscus list.
The study included 48 patients receiving a total of 558 medications, including 155 for the treatment of mental disorders. After pharmacist interventions the total number of medicines decreased by 9.5 %. The consultant pharmacist proposed 60 interventions including psychotropics, of which 32 (53.3 %) were accepted by the general practitioners. Consultant pharmacist interventions led to a decrease in the total number of medications, PIM, and potential X-type drug-drug interactions (p < 0.001). A higher proportion of accepted consultant pharmacist interventions predicts a greater probability for treatment guidelines adherence (p < 0.001).
Clinical pharmacist interventions have increased treatment guideline adherence and reduced the number of prescribed medications, potential X-type interactions, and medications on the Priscus list. Most of the accepted interventions have been maintained after six months, which indicates the important role of the consultant pharmacist in the long-term treatment of mental disorders.
|