EFFECT OF A CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACY CONSULTATION SERVICE ON PATIENT OUTCOMES

The effect of a psychopharmacy consultation service on outcomes in pat ients with psychiatric disorders was studied. The medical records of 3 0 randomly selected patients who had been hospitalized between August 1990 and July 1992 at a private psychiatric institution and who had be en seen by the psychopharmacy consultation service during that period were reviewed. Data obtained included (1) patient demographics, (2) pa tient information generated by the psychopharmacy consultation, (3) th e types of recommendations made by the psychopharmacy specialist and w hether the recommendations were accepted by the physician, and (4) the clinical outcome. Forty-three psychopharmacy consultations for the 30 patients were evaluated. A total of 125 recommendations were made by the consultation service; of these, 75 (60%) were accepted. The consul tations were divided into consultations for which at least a majority of the resulting recommendations were accepted by the physician (n = 2 9) and consultations for which less than a majority of the recommendat ions were accepted (n = 14). For the majority group, 23 (79%) of the 2 9 consultations were associated with a positive outcome, compared with 2 (14%) of the 14 consultations in the less-than-majority group. Simi larly, positive outcomes were significantly more frequent in the major ity-group patients (16/21 [76%]) than in the less-than-majority-group patients (2/9 [22%]). The frequency of positive outcomes was higher am ong patients for whom most of the recommendations of a clinical psycho pharmacy consultation service were accepted than among patients for wh om most recommendations were not accepted.