Pharmacist-led patient counseling appear to have some benefits
Citation: Okumura LM, Rotta I, Correr CJ. Assessment of pharmacist-led patient counseling in randomized controlled trials: a systematic review. International journal of clinical pharmacy. 2014 Oct 1;36(5):882-91.
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What is this? The COVID-19 pandemic is placing a strain on healthcare services. Existing research on pharmacist-delivered drug education services might provide useful information for policy makers.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for randomized trials of pharmacist-delivered counseling or education interventions. They restricted their search to articles published in English, Spanish or Portuguese between 1990 and 2013. They included 101 studies, which they judged to be of generally inadequate quality.
What works: The included studies suggest that pharmacist-led interventions produce health improvements in diabetes, asthma, lipid profile, Helicobacter pylori infection, heart conditions, weight loss, pulmonary function improvement, tobacco cessation, depression, schizophrenia, kidney and osteoporosis.
The included studies suggest that clinical pharmacist-led interventions improved quality of life and patients’ satisfaction with service and led to increased physical activity and consumption of nutritive food and smoking cessation.
The included studies suggest that other positive outcomes of pharmacist-led interventions include drug therapy self-monitoring and cost savings related to use of drug therapy.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: The relative effects of different types of pharmacist-led interventions (e.g. written or verbal) and the effects for different types of person are uncertain.