Palliative pharmaceutical care: A randomized, prospective study of telephone-based prescription and medication counseling services for treating chronic pain

Objective. To evaluate the effects of providing a unique telephone-based ph armaceutical care program to a sample of patients enrolled at a university pain clinic in Philadelphia, Pa. We hypothesized that in comparison to rout ine pharmaceutical care, the telephone-based pharmaceutical care program wo uld have a positive impact on delivery of medication, quality of life, and overall satisfaction with the pain clinic program. Patients. One hundred seven pain clinic patients were randomly assigned to the control and intervention groups. Seventy-four patients (control group, n = 36; intervention group, n = 38) met inclusion criteria. Method. The control group continued to receive care and prescription servic es through the same means as prior to the study. There were 2 components to the pharmaceutical care program offered to the intervention group. The fir st component consisted of a palliative care pharmacy company, PainRxperts, providing specialized prescription services tailored to the needs of a pain medicine clinical practice. The second component involved the palliative-t rained pharmacist's proactive monitoring of patient pharmacotherapy for pot ential or actual drug related problems (DRPs). Results. Intervention patients perceived that they had better access to med ication, more efficient processing of prescriptions, and fewer stigmatizing experiences. They also endorsed pharmacists' behavioral interventions such as medication counseling, availability to answer medication-related questi ons, and non-judgmental attitudes when managing opioid prescriptions. Conclusion. This study suggests that the palliative-trained pharmacist can play an important collaborative role in managing chronic pain. Application of the pharmaceutical care model in pain medicine centers can improve satis faction and remove some of the barriers to good pharmaceutical care facing patients with chronic pain disorders.