2017 Volume 40 Issue 2 Pages 79-85
Introduction: In patients with sleep disturbance, doctors and pharmacists jointly implemented protocol-based pharmacotherapy management (PBPM), and examined the effects and levels of patient satisfaction achieved with this therapeutic approach.
Methods: The subjects were 21 patients with insomnia. Prior to medical consultations with the doctor, the pharmacist collected the patients' information by interviewing them, and followed the protocol to determine their need for sleep medicine, propose optimal prescriptions, and use a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach. Three months after the intervention, changes in the patients' sleep quality were evaluated using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Insomnia Severity Inventory (ISI), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). To evaluate the levels of patient satisfaction, we used the Japanese version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire comprising 8 items (CSQ-8J).
Results: The patients' scores pertaining to sleep quality before intervention were PSQI: 10.3±4.1, ISI: 15.0±5.3, and ESS: 8.7±6.6, all of which showed significant improvement 3 months after the intervention to respective values of 7.2±2.7, 8.3±4.3, and 6.2±5.5. The mean score for CSQ-8J was 25.5±3.1, indicating high levels of patient satisfaction. No serious adverse events were observed.
Conclusions: The use of PBPM in patients with sleep disturbance can ameliorate their insomnia symptoms and yield high levels of patient satisfaction. Our findings suggested that PBPM allows pharmacists to play an active role in the treatment of insomnia and contribute to the provision of appropriate drug therapy tailored to the needs of individual patients.
