Effect of pharmacist counseling on drug information recall

Abstract

The effect of counseling by pharmacists on patients' long-term recall of drug information was studied. Clinic and hospital neurological patients were counseled by a physician regarding a drug newly prescribed for them. Each patient in the study was then given a 15-item multiple-choice pretest specific for the new medication. Patients in the control group were given a posttest identical to the pretest eight weeks later. Test group patients were counseled by a pharmacist and were given the posttest eight weeks later. Specific information was categorized as to source. The mean scores of the test group patients increased 26.2 percentage points between pretest and posttest. Scores on information covered by the physician and reinforced by the pharmacist increased 19.6 percentage points, and scores on information presented only by the pharmacist with written reinforcement increased 30.6 percentage points. Scores of the control group patients showed no improvement between pretest and posttest. Pharmacist counseling had a significant effect on patients' recall of drug information after eight weeks.