Perspective of community pharmacists on their practice with patients who have an antidepressant drug treatment: Findings from a focus group study

Khan

Community Ment Health J

et al. 2019

The aim of this study was to assess community pharmacists' (CPs) perceptions toward mental healthcare, and the barriers faced in providing pharmaceutical care (PC) services to these patients. A 40-item survey was posted to CPs. Ninety-six pharmacists participated. The majority (84.2%) agreed there is a role for CPs to play in mental health care, while approximately 60% agreed it is their responsibility to provide PC to these patients. The biggest barrier to providing this service is the lack of knowledge, cited by close to 50% of respondents. This corresponds with the revelation that close to 60% believe that they have a poor or fair understanding of mental disorders. About 30% of respondents said they do not stock psychotropic drugs at all, mainly due to medico-legal reasons, and low prescription requests. Our findings highlight the need for more training of CPs in managing patients with mental disorders.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Section: Stocking and Pharmaceutical Care Servicesmentioning

confidence: 64%

Perception of Community Pharmacists in Malaysia About Mental Healthcare and Barriers to Providing Pharmaceutical Care Services to Patients with Mental Disorders

Khan

Community Ment Health J

et al. 2019

“…While patients’ experiences with ADs and the challenges patients face have been extensively documented in the published literature, there was a lack of information on patients’ experiences of pharmacy services and the actual and optimal pharmacy practices for this population. To complete the information collected from these reviews, three descriptive exploratory qualitative studies were conducted: (1) individual interviews with patients prescribed ADs ( n = 14) [ 40 ]; (2) individual interviews with key informants in mental health and pharmacist practices ( n = 21) [ 41 ]; and (3) focus groups with community pharmacists ( n = 43) [ 42 ]. The aims of these studies were the following: (1) to describe community pharmacists’ current practices and challenges; (2) to explore the factors influencing the initiation of ADs and persistence for the whole length of treatment; and (3) the potential contributions of community pharmacists to improve patients’ use of and experience with ADs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…IM offered a clear set of tasks to sequentially guide and focus the meetings with the pharmacists’ committee through different questions and decisions regarding the intervention development [ 34 ]. Second, IM provided a robust methodology to concretely integrate the results of the original qualitative and quantitative studies, carried out as needs assessment, into the intervention development process [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. The results from these studies provided the researchers and pharmacists’ committee with a deep understanding of the challenges and incentives that may influence both pharmacists’ practices and patients’ experience with and use of ADs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This committee consisted of four community pharmacists. The size of this group was judged appropriate to facilitate discussions as, prior to meetings with this pharmacists’ committee, we also gained important input on the role of community pharmacists for patients taking ADs by conducting one quantitative and three qualitative studies [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Committee members were identified through the contacts of the research group.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Development of a Community Pharmacy-Based Intervention to Optimize Patients’ Use of and Experience with Antidepressants: A Step-by-Step Demonstration of the Intervention Mapping Process

Santina

Lauzier

Gagnon³

et al. 2018

Pharmacy

Self Cite

Objective: To describe the development of a community pharmacy-based intervention aimed at optimizing experience and use of antidepressants (ADs) for patients with mood and anxiety disorders. Methods: Intervention Mapping (IM) was used for conducting needs assessment, formulating intervention objectives, selecting change methods and practical applications, designing the intervention, and planning intervention implementation. IM is based on a qualitative participatory approach and each step of the intervention development process was conducted through consultations with a pharmacists’ committee. Results: A needs assessment was informed by qualitative and quantitative studies conducted with leaders, pharmacists, and patients. Intervention objectives and change methods were selected to target factors influencing patients’ experience with and use of ADs. The intervention includes four brief consultations between the pharmacist and the patient: (1) provision of information (first AD claim); (2) management of side effects (15 days after first claim); (3) monitoring treatment efficacy (30-day renewal); (4) assessment of treatment persistence (2-month renewal, repeated every 6 months). A detailed implementation plan was also developed. Conclusion: IM provided a systematic and rigorous approach to the development of an intervention directly tied to empirical data on patients’ and pharmacists’ experiences and recommendations. The thorough description of this intervention may facilitate the development of new pharmacy-based interventions or the adaptation of this intervention to other illnesses and settings.

Journal of Mental Health

“…Ultimately, healthcare professionals need to discuss individual consumer's medication management on a regular basis, including the impact of side effects, simplify dosing regimens and emphasise the importance of adherence even when feeling better. The need to have systematic, short, follow-up discussions with mental health consumers was underscored by French-Canadian pharmacists, acknowledging it as a shortcoming in their practice (Guillaumie et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of a person-centred community pharmacy mental health medication support service on consumer outcomes

McMillan

Kelly

Hattingh

et al. 2017

Background: Mental illness is a worldwide health priority. As medication is commonly used to treat mental illness, community pharmacy staff is well placed to assist consumers. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted, community pharmacy medication support service for mental health consumers. Method: Pharmacists and pharmacy support staff in three Australian states were trained to deliver a flexible, goal-oriented medication support service for adults with mental illness over 3-6 months. Consumer-related outcome measures included perceptions of illness and healthrelated quality of life, medication beliefs, treatment satisfaction and medication adherence. Results: Fifty-five of 100 trained pharmacies completed the intervention with 295 of the 418 recruited consumers (70.6% completion rate); 51.2% of consumers received two or more followups. Significant improvements were reported by consumers for overall perceptions of illness (p50.001), the mental health domain of quality of life (p50.001), concerns about medication (p ¼ 0.001) and global satisfaction with medication (p50.001). Consumers also reported an increase in medication adherence (p ¼ 0.005). Conclusions: A community pharmacy mental health medication support service that is goaloriented, flexible and individualised, improved consumer outcomes across various measures. While further research into the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of such a service is warranted, this intervention could easily be adapted to other contexts.