Taranee Kongtalae. Pharmaceutical care related to pain management in patients with cancer at the Medical Ward of Ramathibodi Hospital . Master's Degree(Clinical Pharmacy). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2005.
Pharmaceutical care related to pain management in patients with cancer at the Medical Ward of Ramathibodi Hospital
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to implement a pharmaceutical care model for patients with solid tumors who had pain, and to assess the outcome of the pharmaceutical care process related to pain management. This study was performed at the medical wards of Ramathibodi hospital during September 2004 - June 2005. This study was designed as pre-post comparison study. The primary outcome was a reduction of pain intensity by approximately two points or 33% or greater with respect to baseline pain after the pharmaceutical care intervention. The secondary outcomes included a number of drug therapy problems in pain management, especially the analgesic side effects, number of the physicians and the patients responses to recommended intervention and patient outcomes. Pain assessment by numerical rating scale (NRS) and the activity of identifying, resolving and preventing drug therapy problems (DTPs) were performed every day until discharge date and then followed up for 1 month. Forty-seven patients, most of whom had advanced cancer (82.9%), were recruited in the study with mean pain intensity as 7.4 + 1.5 on NRS. After providing pharmaceutical care service, the mean pain score on numerical rating scale was significantly decreased (Paired sample t test, p < 0.001) and continued decreasing until discharge. The factors that affected the reduction of pain intensity score were baseline pain intensity score, changes in type of opioid analgesic prescription, and change in type of adjuvant prescription. Drug therapy problems which identified and implemented pharmaceutical care were mean of 9.7 interventions per patient. Adverse drug reaction was the most frequently identified and made the recommendation. The pharmaceutical care plan that was implemented with physicians and patients showed the high acceptance (91% in physician responses and 96% in patient responses). The patients clinical outcomes of the study were 14% of patients were pain free, 48% of patients had a pain intensity score of less than 3 on NRS. In conclusion, this pharmaceutical care model provided for cancer patients who have pain was associated with good pain control with minimal DTPs. This study demonstrated that pharmacists can play an important role in the healthcare team in suggest in an appropriate pattern of analgesic regimens prescription, and identifying, resolving and preventing DTPs in order to enhance positive patient outcomes.