This study was to evaluate the impact of hospital pharmacist-led home medication review (HMR) programme on medication adherence, knowledge towards 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 one month, three months and six months by the pharmacist to perform a comprehensive medication review. Friedman ANOVA 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 (MARS) scores (baseline: 8.42±1.40 versus 6th month: 9.47±1.02; p < 0.001) and mean pill count percentage (baseline: 56.68±39.43% versus 6th month: 90.37±15.19%; p < 0.001). Subjects mean knowledge score on antipsychotics were improved significantly with the HMR programme (baseline: 5.56±1.51 versus 6th month: 7.65±0.60; p < 0.001). Regarding the subjects quality of life, the social and the family components of the Sheehan disability scale (SDS) 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 programme has a positive impact on medication adherence, knowledge of antipsychotics and quality of life on social and family components among people with schizophrenia.
Key words: Home Medication Review, pharmacist, schizophrenia, psychiatric, Malaysia
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