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. 2012 Jan 31;6:87–100. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S27436

Table 4.

Impact of pharmacist intervention on patient reported outcome and depression

Study Pharmacist intervention Outcome measures Significant outcomes
Canales13 Performing baseline assessment and weekly review; reviewing medical history and drug administration records; monitoring drug reactions; providing treatment recommendation; conducting patient drug education weekly and counseling Depressive symptoms; cognitive function; quality of life; thought disorder; mood disorder

  1. Hamilton Psychiatric Rating scores improved significantly for mood disorder (65% vs 9%)

  2. Discharge scores (thought disorder) improved significantly more in the intervention group (93% vs 23% for patients with 20% improvement and 62% vs 0% for 30% improvement)
Bultman14 Performing patient interviews twice to assess medication history, drug knowledge, and drug belief, patient satisfaction, medication adherence and monitoring patient behavior Patient beliefs; patient knowledge; patient satisfaction with therapy; and adherence rate

  1. High percentage (87%) of patients satisfied with antidepressant treatment at baseline

  2. Pharmacist monitoring positively influenced adherence for patients taking antidepressants for the first time
Finley15 Intake and follow-up interviews (three clinic visits and five phone calls); medical history review; drug prescribing and dose changes under protocol; drug information counseling Patient satisfaction; clinic visit frequency; Resource utilization

  1. Clinic visit decline was different (39% vs 12%)

  2. Patients were more satisfied in intervention group
Finley16 Drug monitoring; patient education; routine follow-up extensive phone calls at weeks 1, 2, 4, 10, and 16; drug prescribing and medication change under protocol Patient satisfaction; clinic visit frequency; resource utilization

  1. Intervention patients were more satisfied with treatment

  2. Clinic visits declined by 13% (15% vs 2%)

  3. Drug cost of intervention patients increased by 42%

  4. No significant difference in improvement of depressive symptoms
Adler17 Contacting patients nine times over the 18-month study; reviewing medication history, drug side effects and efficacy; assisting drug choice, dose, and regimen; providing social support; educating patients to maintain medication Depression severity

  1. For patients using antidepressants at study entry, no significant differences in antidepressant use were observed between groups at 3 or 6 months

  2. For patients not on antidepressants at study entry, antidepressant use rate was higher in intervention patients at both 3 months and 6 months
Capoccia18 Performing patient follow-up by phone Interviewing patients two times during clinic visits; patient contact during clinic visits (weeks 4 and 12); monitoring drug treatment (time drugs taken, change of drugs and other treatment); educating patients on side effects; providing drug refills and medication dose adjustment Depressive symptoms; patient satisfaction, and clinical visits

  1. No overall difference in satisfaction with depression care

  2. No overall difference in improvement of depression symptoms was observed between groups

  3. No difference between the two groups in number of visits to all health care providers was observed
Rickles19 Conducting three monthly phone calls to patients: during first call, assessing patient’s drug knowledge and belief, adverse effects, drug use status, treatment goals, and self-rated depression severity; follow-up during second and third call. Frequency of feedback to pharmacist; depressive symptoms; antidepressant knowledge and drug belief

  1. No statistically significant impact on depressive symptoms

  2. Depressive symptoms improved in both groups

  3. Intervention patients had higher scores in drug knowledge and belief (75% vs 48%)
Brook20 Offered three phone calls (10–20 minutes); Provided a take-home video emphasizing medication adherence; documented number of pills and refill date Depressive symptoms No improvement in depressive symptoms was observed
Al-Saffar21 Patients received a patient information leaflet written in Arabic with counseling Interview questionnaires

  1. Patients in the treatment groups had an improved knowledge of the rationale of treatment

  2. Clinic attendance was more likely when patients had received intervention

  3. Preexisting patient attitudes to therapy and the occurrence of side effects were not determinants of adherence
Crockett22 Pharmacists were given video-conference training on the nature and management of depression by a psychiatrist, psychologist and general practitioner and asked to dispense medication with extra advice and support K10 and Drug Attitude Index

  1. Both groups had improved significantly in well-being (a reduction K10 score of 4 (control) versus 4.7 (intervention))

  2. No significant change was found in attitude to drug treatment once baseline scores were controlled for
Rickles23 Three monthly telephone calls from pharmacists providing structured education and monitoring Frequency of patient feedback to pharmacists, antidepressant knowledge, depressive symptoms Significantly more feedback to pharmacists regarding different aspects of their antidepressant therapy
Bosmans24 Offered three education and coaching programs and a take-home video reviewing important facts on depression and antidepressant treatment Hopkins Symptom Checklist Improvements in the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression mean item score and costs