EVIDENCE-BASED PHARMACOTHERAPY - REVIEW OF BASIC CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS IN CLINICAL-PRACTICE

OBJECTIVE: TO introduce concepts that may assist pharmacists in the us e and application of scientific evidence in clinical practice. These c oncepts are followed by examples of clinical trials as well as case sc enarios that guide the reader through solving clinical problems using the tools discussed in the article. BACKGROUND: The introduction of ev idence-based practice in the 1990s has had a positive impact on the pr actices of medicine and pharmacy. Part of this impact has been in the area of drug therapy. Although much literature has been published on t he principles of evidence-based practice in the past few years, most o f this material was intended for practicing physicians. We are not awa re of any articles on the use of the evidence-based principles intende d for clinical pharmacists. We are also aware that discussing all of t hese principles is an enormous task and thus beyond the scope of this article. Therefore, we focused this discussion on a brief summary of d ifferent study designs, factors affecting the strength of scientific e vidence, and interpretation of the data. An approach in the use of the se concepts is discussed through the use of case scenarios. RECOMMENDA TIONS: Clinical pharmacists must use concepts in evidence-based practi ce when making pharmacotherapeutic decisions.