Depressed patients’ preferences for education about medications by pharmacists in Kuwait

Objective

To assess patients’ opinion toward receiving written or specialized verbal pharmacists’ interventions and to determine the effect of these interventions on patients’ medication knowledge.

Methods

150 newly diagnosed patients with unipolar depression and initiated with a single antidepressant were randomized into 3 groups: control, leaflet and counselling, and interviewed at initiation and after 6–8 weeks of treatment at the outpatient department of the Psychiatric Hospital in Kuwait.

Results

50% of respondents asserted that clinicians did not give them sufficient information while 90% favoured the idea of receiving further information about therapy. Forty seven percent of participants failed to return for the second follow-up appointment. The drop-out rate was 66% in the control, 42% in the Leaflet and only 34% in the counselling groups (P = 0.004). A broad support for receiving leaflets and drug counselling (97%) was found among attendees. Moreover, 94% of the counselling and 79% of the leaflets group affirmed that they received adequate information compared to 47% of the control (P = 0.001). Counselling was found to be significantly associated with a much higher recall of medicine name (OR = 9.6, P = 0.01), how to manage missed doses (OR = 8.9, P = 0.007), and correct use of medication (OR = 31.3, P < 0.001). Leaflet use was less strongly associated than counselling and was statistically significant for recall regarding correct use of medication (OR = 8.4, P = 0.009).

Conclusion

Pharmacists in a psychiatric institution can play an important role in satisfying patient demands for specialized information about their medications. Patients with depression appear very eager to receive additional drug information with modest difference between the written and the verbal counselling interventions. Patients looked at the two interventions in a very positive manner and no difference was observed between patients in the leaflets and in the counselling group with regards to how helpful, sufficient, supportive and reassuring was the educational material. However, both interventions were more informative than the control in conveying elemental drug information to patients.

Practice Implications

In contrast with the lack of enthusiasm that some clinicians express, the affirmativeness that was expressed by patients towards receiving written or verbal specialized educational interventions by pharmacists may support the psychiatric hospital pharmacists’ stands in providing them for all patients which may aid in improving patients compliance and probably treatment outcome.