An Evaluation of the Effect of Primary Care Pharmacist Interventions on Patients with Chronic Pain
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Date
2017-01-20
Authors
Chen, Mo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
Background: Chronic pain is a common condition that has significant impact on
patients’ physical and psychological well-being. Pharmacotherapeutic management of
chronic pain differs on the basis of the cause pain. Pharmacists’ expertise of
pharmacological knowledge and patient care make them key players in managing chronic
pain.
Methods: A three-month prospective pilot study was carried out at primary care settings
including community pharmacies and family health teams. Patients were seen by
pharmacists at the initial visit, 2-week follow-up, and 3-month follow-up visit.
Pharmacists’ interventions consisted of patient assessments, medication reviews, care
plan recommendations, and patient education. Pain, quality of life, and medication
adherence were measured with Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Short Form-36, and Morisky
Medication Adherence Scales-8, respectively.
Results: Thirteen patients were enrolled, one withdrew. There was no significant
improvement in pain or quality of life at 3-month follow-up. However, trends toward
improvement were found.
Conclusions: This study showed that interventions of primary care pharmacists had no
significant 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 be
due to small sample size, low implementation rate of pharmacist recommendations by
physicians, low patient adherence, or extended study period.
Description
Keywords
pharmacists, primary care, chronic pain