Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 5;10(6):358-380.
doi: 10.9740/mhc.2020.11.358. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Impact of pharmacists on outcomes for patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders

Amy Werremeyer  1 , Jolene Bostwick  2 , Carla Cobb  3 , Tera D Moore  4 , Susie H Park  5 , Cristofer Price  6 , Jerry McKee  7
Affiliations

Impact of pharmacists on outcomes for patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders

Amy Werremeyer et al. Ment Health Clin. .

Abstract

Introduction: Psychiatric and neurologic illnesses are highly prevalent and are often suboptimally treated. A 2015 review highlighted the value of psychiatric pharmacists in improving medication-related outcomes. There is a need to describe areas of expansion and strengthened evidence regarding pharmacist practice and patient care impact in psychiatric and neurologic settings since 2015.

Methods: A systematic search of literature published from January 2014 to June 2019 was conducted. Publications describing patient-level outcome results associated with pharmacist provision of care in a psychiatric/neurologic setting and/or in relation to central nervous system (CNS) medications were included.

Results: A total of 64 publications were included. There was significant heterogeneity of published study methods and data, prohibiting meta-analysis. Pharmacists practicing across a wide variety of health care settings with focus on CNS medication management significantly improved patient-level outcomes, such as medication adherence, disease control, and avoidance of hospitalization. The most common practice approach associated with significant improvement in patient-level outcomes was incorporation of psychiatric pharmacist input into the interprofessional health care team.

Discussion: Pharmacists who focus on psychiatric and neurologic disease improve outcomes for patients with these conditions. This is important in the current health care environment as most patients with psychiatric or neurologic conditions continue to have unmet needs. Additional studies designed to measure pharmacists' impact on patient-level outcomes are encouraged to strengthen these findings.

Keywords: interprofessional team; medication management; neurologic pharmacist; patient-level outcomes; psychiatric pharmacist.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: S.H.P. is a paid consultant for Wolters Kluwer Health. Otherwise the authors have no relevant financial or other conflicts of interest to disclose.

References

    1. Institute of Medicine. Informing the future critical issues in health 4th edition. Washington: The National Academies Press;; 2007.
    1. ClinCalc.com. The top 200 of 2020. [Internet] [cited 2020 Jul 2]. Available from: https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/Top200Drugs.aspx.
    1. Center for Health Care Strategies. Faces of Medicaid: Clarifying multimorbidity patterns to improve targeting and delivery of clinical services for Medicaid populations. [2010 Dec 1; [Internet] cited 2020 Jul 21] Available from: https://www.chcs.org/resource/faces-of-medicaid-clarifying-multimorbidit...
    1. Carney CP, Jones L, Woolson RF. Medical comorbidity in women and men with schizophrenia: a population-based controlled study. J Gen Intern Med. 2006;21(11):1133–7. DOI: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00563.x PubMed PMID: 17026726. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. De Hert M, Correll CU, BoBes J, Cetkovich-Bakmas M, Cohen D, Asai I, et al. Physical illness in patients with severe mental disorders. I. Prevalence, impact of medications and disparities in health care. World Psychiatry. 2011;10(1):52–77. DOI: 10.1002/j.2051-5545.2011.tb00014.x PubMed PMID: 21379357. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources