No abstract

Psychiatric pharmacists have specialized knowledge, skills, and training or substantial experience working with patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders. As part of the collaborative team with a physician, psychiatric pharmacists can provide comprehensive medication management (CMM), a direct patient care service, to patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders. CMM is a standard of care in which all medications for an individual patient are assessed to determine appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, and adherence. Studies have shown that when psychiatric pharmacists are included as part of the collaborative team with a physician, medication-related outcomes for patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders improve. Despite the evidence supporting the value of psychiatric pharmacists as part of the health care team, the very limited mechanisms for compensation for CMM limit the numbers of patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders who have access to services provided by a psychiatric pharmacist. We believe that all patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders should have access to CMM provided by a psychiatric pharmacist.

Awareness of the most frequent drug classes associated with ADRs and pADRs in a psychiatric hospital allows opportunity for education, medication management system changes, and improved patient safety. Lithium, followed by phenytoin and anxiolytics, were the most common drugs associated with pADRs. A drug-drug interaction was the most frequent factor associated with pADRs.