CLINICAL PHARMACIST ASSESSMENT OF MONITORING AND RESOLVING THE DRUG-RELATED PROBLEMS IN BIPOLAR DISORDER PATIENTS: A PROSPECTIVE, OBSERVATIONAL STUDY AT TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Background: Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental illness due to a different interval of manic and depressive phase, the patient may become more prone to DRP, which interfere with the patients’ health outcome. Hence, clinical pharmacist can contribute to managing the DRP through proper pharmaceutical care intervention. Method/Design: A prospective, observational study had been done with 286 participants to assess, monitor, and resolve the DRP through Clinical Pharmacist intervention. Patients with Bipolar disorder, aged 18 to 65, included in the study except for the patient with other comorbid condition, lactating mothers, and pregnant women. Results: DRP in between, all the patients were observed, of which 70.9 % were drug-drug interaction followed by 29.1% ADR. The two major causes of DRP were at drug/dose selection level 95.5%, followed by a drug use process level 4.5%. Pharmacist intervention has been proposed at prescriber level, of which majority of interventions 52.7% had been accepted by the prescriber. Conclusion: In our study, the majority of DRP 64.7%, had been resolved due to the clinical pharmacist intervention, which shows that participation of clinical pharmacist in psychiatric setting may help to resolve the DRP and integrate the health care delivery system.