Pharmaceutical Care through Telemedicine of Outpatients with Mood Disorders: Pilot Study

Mood disorders represent a major public health problem because they are highly incapacitating, causing social, Physical and personal limitations. Among these, the most prevalent is depression. Pharmaceutical care when in the context of mental health is of great value because it is designed to improve adherence to the treatment and minimize side effects, as well as checking and correcting drug interactions. This practice allied to telemedicine might be an alternative to reach much of the population, with relative convenience. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmaceutical care through pharmacotherapy follow-up in depressive symptoms in women who use psychotropic medications, especially those diagnosed with depression. Patients were followed for six months through meetings every two months and telephone calls every month. The research instruments used were pharmacotherapeutic follow-up according to the Dader method, the PHQ-9 depression questionnaire and a questionnaire to measure patient adherence to treatment. The monitored patients were on average 53 (30-74) years old. Most of them, 77.23%, have nine years of study, i.e. incomplete primary education. Over half of the patients (54.55%, n=12) reported that the first episode of mental disorder had occurred more than 10 years ago, however only 25% (n=3) underwent treatment for a period longer than or equal to 10 years. At first only 36% of patients had treatment adherence. At the end of 6 months, the study showed that approximately 73% of patients adhered to treatment and 27% reported at least one treatment interruption. The study also showed positive influence on depression symptoms with a statistically significant decrease of them (p<0.0001). The results showed that the developed pharmaceutical care through telemedicine was effective in reducing levels of depression in the studied population.