An Evaluation of the Effect of Primary Care Pharmacist Interventions on Patients with Chronic Pain

pharmacists;primary care;chronic pain

Chen, Mo

University of Waterloo

关键词: pharmacists;    primary care;    chronic pain;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/11226/1/Chen_Mo.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Background: Chronic pain is a common condition that has significant impact onpatients’ physical and psychological well-being. Pharmacotherapeutic management ofchronic pain differs on the basis of the cause pain. Pharmacists’ expertise ofpharmacological knowledge and patient care make them key players in managing chronicpain.Methods: A three-month prospective pilot study was carried out at primary care settingsincluding community pharmacies and family health teams. Patients were seen bypharmacists at the initial visit, 2-week follow-up, and 3-month follow-up visit.Pharmacists’ interventions consisted of patient assessments, medication reviews, careplan recommendations, and patient education. Pain, quality of life, and medicationadherence were measured with Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Short Form-36, and MoriskyMedication Adherence Scales-8, respectively.Results: Thirteen patients were enrolled, one withdrew. There was no significantimprovement in pain or quality of life at 3-month follow-up. However, trends towardimprovement were found.Conclusions: This study showed that interventions of primary care pharmacists had nosignificant effect on pain or quality of life of patients with chronic pain. However,positive trends towards reducing pain intensity and pain interference with patients’general activity, mood, normal work, and sleep were found. The reason for this could bedue to small sample size, low implementation rate of pharmacist recommendations byphysicians, low patient adherence, or extended study period.