Impact of hospital pharmacist-led home medication review program for people with schizophrenia: A prospective study from Malaysia

Abstract

This study was to evaluate the impact of hospital pharmacist-led home medication review (HMR) program on medication adherence, knowledge toward antipsychotic drugs, and quality of life among people with schizophrenia. This was a prospective longitudinal study conducted from October 2012 to December 2013. This study involved 133 people with schizophrenia under the care of the home care team in Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta Hospital, Malaysia. Upon attaining written informed consent, subjects were home visited after 1, 3, and 6 months by the pharmacist to perform a comprehensive medication review. Friedman analysis of variance test was used to compare the differences of the patients' medication adherence, knowledge of antipsychotic treatment, and quality of life at baseline and each follow-up visit. Subjects had a significant improvement on medication adherence as shown by the mean medication adherence rating scale scores (baseline: 8.42 ± 1.40 vs. sixth month: 9.47 ± 1.02; p < 0.001) and mean pill count percentage (baseline: 56.68% ± 39.43% vs. sixth month: 90.37% ± 15.19%; p < 0.001). Subjects' mean knowledge score on antipsychotics were improved significantly with the HMR program (baseline: 5.56 ± 1.51 vs. sixth month: 7.65 ± 0.60; p < 0.001). Regarding the subject's quality of life, the "social" and the "family" components of the Sheehan disability scale demonstrated significant improvement (p < 0.001). However, the improvement of the "work" component and overall quality of life were not statistically significant. In conclusion, pharmacist-led HMR program has a positive impact on medication adherence, knowledge of antipsychotics, and quality of life on "social" and "family" components among people with schizophrenia.