Pharmaceutical interventions in mental health: A review of the literature to support evidence-informed policymaking

Protocol for a qualitative study exploring the pharmacist's role in supporting postsecondary students with psychotropic medication management

INTRODUCTION

Findings from the National College Health Assessment (2019) stated that anxiety and depression are the most prevalent diagnosed mental illnesses among Canadian postsecondary students with one-fifth of students self-reporting a lifetime diagnosis. Psychotropic medications can be an important component of a multifaceted approach to the management and treatment of mental illness and are the most commonly dispensed via community pharmacies. Community pharmacies provide an opportunity for pharmacists to have a prominent role in supporting patients' psychotropic medication management. However, there has been limited exploration of how pharmacists can address patients' psychotropic medication management needs, experiences and opportunities for improvements especially for emerging adults.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

This qualitative study will incorporate Thorne's approach to interpretative description. Purposeful snowball sampling will be used to identify students (18-25 years) taking psychotropic medication(s) to manage their mental health. Participants will be interviewed one on one using a semistructured interview guide virtually. Inductive thematic analysis is underway with data analysis being iterative and reflexive using NVivo. Information provided from the interviews will be reviewed and summarised into key themes.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study was approved by the University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (REB #43185). It is expected that there will be a very low risk for mild psychological and social harm for participants as they will have the ability to stop the interview at any time and will be aware of confidentiality. The results from this study will be used to create or adapt healthcare team services including the role of pharmacists within the healthcare ecosystem at the university and contribute to developing the next stage of research to evaluate feasibility and effectiveness of programmes at the university that help postsecondary students to manage psychotropic medication.

Global Advancement in Pharmacy Services for Mental Health: A Review for Evidence-Based Practices

The symptoms of psychiatric infirmities have variability, and selected drug regimens for mental illness are comparatively complex and individualized; therefore, pharmacy services vary with respect to patients, diseases, healthcare settings, community structures, and countries. Clinical pharmacy services for mental health (MH) are continuously being upgraded. A structured search of the literature was performed in the Cochrane, PubMed (Medline), PsycINFO, Google scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, and Springer Links databases. The title and abstract of each retrieved article were evaluated for relevance. To remove uncertainty and ambiguity, the full-text articles were retrieved and examined for relevance. The articles were further assessed on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Narrative synthesis was performed, creating new categories and relevant subcategories and further subsections. The articles and the results were assessed for quality and bias. Pharmacists have a range of expertise in psychiatric care. The services can be classified as conventional, extended, and advanced pharmacy services. Conventional services include the quality use of medicines in healthcare settings and medication support services in communities that ensure medication adherence. Pharmacists perform extended roles in collaborative medication therapy management, multidisciplinary community mental health teams, collaborative care, patient education, home medication review, hospital-to-home transit, and screening services. In the USA, the role of pharmacists was advanced by prescribing as collaborative and interim prescribers. Australia launched an accredited program for psychiatric first-aid pharmacists. Pharmacists can provide mental care to rural populations using health technology. The role of pharmacists in MH is appreciated either independently or as a team member. Patients and healthcare providers rank the services of pharmacists in MH highly. Still, there is a margin for improvement in the training of pharmacists. Pharmacists cannot provide sufficient time to their patients. Public awareness about the role of pharmacists in MH needs more attention. Moreover, the training of psychiatric pharmacists should be standardized around the world.

Clinical, economic and humanistic outcomes of medication therapy management services: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Medication therapy management (MTM) services is a method that can effectively improve patients’ conditions, but the efficacy of economic and humanistic outcomes remain unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to use economic, clinical and humanistic outcomes to evaluate the multi-benefits of MTM services.

Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted by retrieving PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrial.gov from the inception to April 2022. There were two reviewers screening the records, extracting the data, and assessing the quality of studies independently.

Results: A total of 81 studies with 60,753 participants were included. MTM services were more effective in clinical outcomes with decreasing the rate of readmission (OR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.73 to 0.83; I2 = 56%), emergency department visit (OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.81 to 0.96; I2 = 32%), adverse drug events (All-cause: OR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.56 to 0.84; I2 = 61%; SAE: OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.33 to 0.79; I2 = 35%) and drug-related problems (MD: −1.37; 95% CI: −2.24 to −0.5; I2 = 95%), reducing the length of stay in hospital (MD: −0.74; 95% CI: −1.37 to −0.13; I2 = 70%), while the economic and humanistic outcomes were less effective.

Conclusion: Our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that MTM services had great ability to improve patients’ clinical conditions while the efficacy of economic and humanistic outcomes, with some of the outcomes showing high degree of heterogeneity and possible publication bias, required more future studies to provide stronger evidence.

Systematic Review Registration: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=349050], identifier [CRD42022349050].

A qualitative study exploring opportunities for pharmacists to connect with young mental health consumers

OBJECTIVE

To explore how pharmacists can best support young people using medication for any mental health condition. The experiences of obtaining or supplying psychotropic medication and recommendations for service improvement were explored from the perspectives of young people, community pharmacists, and key stakeholders.

DESIGN

A qualitative study using semistructured interviews with young people and pharmacists and the nominal group technique as a consensus method for stakeholders.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 18 young people and a nominal group with 6 stakeholders at 1 of 2 mental health support organizations in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Phone conversations were held with 11 pharmacists who were located across Australia. The young people were aged between 14 and 25 years, had used a mental health medication for the previous 2 months, and lived in the community. Pharmacists recognized as mental health advocates or providing a mental health service and stakeholders from 1 support organization were purposively recruited.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Themes related to the current and potential roles for pharmacists when interacting with young people using psychotropic medication.

RESULTS

There was limited awareness of the role of pharmacists, possibly because of the largely transactional nature of the young people's pharmacy experiences. However, young people perceived value in receiving information from pharmacists about their psychotropic medication, in particular, their adverse effects, and interactions with alcohol and other recreational drugs. Respectful communication and access to a private space to discuss sensitive matters were ways that pharmacists could encourage the development of supportive relationships with young people.

CONCLUSION

This study provides unique insights about the experiences of young people using psychotropic medication within community pharmacies. There is an imperative for pharmacists to move beyond a transactional or reactive approach to create a safe health space and address young people's medication concerns beyond initial supply.

A roadmap for strengthening evidence-informed health policy-making in Iran: protocol for a research programme

BACKGROUND

Many initiatives have been taken in the Islamic Republic of Iran to promote evidence-informed health policy-making (EIHP). However, these initiatives are not systematic. Since the implementation of EIHP is not consistent and the interventions in this regard are complex, a comprehensive plan could be a useful tool for employing initiatives to achieve and promote EIHP. Hence, this study aims to develop a roadmap for strengthening EIHP over a 3-year period in Iran.

METHODS

Nine projects will be conducted to define the roadmap for strengthening EIHP. These projects include two reviews and a stakeholder analysis to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder achieving EIHP. The next study will be a qualitative study to prioritise the challenges and outline the main causes. The following steps will be a review of reviews to extract global experiences on interventions used for strengthening EIHP and two qualitative studies to examine the adoption of these interventions and develop an operational plan for strengthening EIHP in Iran. The research will be completed through conducting two qualitative-quantitative studies to design a tool for measuring EIHP and assessing EIHP in Iran at baseline.

DISCUSSION

This national EIHP roadmap will surely be able to identify the gaps and bumps that might exist in the implementation plan for establishing EIHP and eliminate them as needed in the future. This roadmap can be a step in moving towards transparency and accountability in the health system and as thus towards good governance and improvement of the health system's performance. Although the plan can be a good model for developing countries and may promote the use of evidence in health policy-making, we should assume that there are some critical contextual factors that could potentially hinder the complete and successful implementation of EIHP. Thus, to enhance EIHP in these countries with a policy-making context that does not fully support the use of evidence, it is crucial to think about not only those interventions that directly address the EIHP barriers, but also some long-term strategies to make required changes in the context, both beyond and within the health system.