| Background. There is a high rate of antidepressant (AD) discontinuation within the first 3 months of treatment. Discontinuation may be due to side effects, poor AD knowledge, negative beliefs and inconsistent AD provider monitoring. AD education and monitoring by pharmacists can have a significant impact on consumer outcomes especially among new AD users. More research is needed on a pharmacist's use of telephone and structured monitoring tools to facilitate consistent consumer AD education and monitoring.; Aims. To compare consumer outcomes of usual pharmacist's care to those receiving consistent telephone monitoring during the first 3 months of AD use and examine the relationships among study variables.; Methods. 60 eligible adults presenting a new AD prescription at one of 8 Wisconsin community pharmacies were randomized into two groups: 31 intervention consumers received 3 monthly phone calls by one of 14 trained pharmacists and 29 control consumers received usual pharmacist's care. Pharmacists used a monitoring tool to guide their telephone follow-up on the consumer's AD knowledge, beliefs, adherence, side effects, other concerns and AD goals. All consumers completed an initial and final Beck Depression Inventory-II and a final survey evaluating the consumer's AD knowledge, beliefs, adherence, feedback with pharmacists and orientation towards treatment progress.; Results. Intervention consumers had significantly more AD knowledge and positive beliefs, and provided greater feedback to pharmacists than control consumers. The intervention had no significant impact on adherence and clinical improvement during the 3-month study period. Regressions showed that greater AD knowledge and positive beliefs were associated with fewer missed doses, fewer missed doses were associated with greater clinical improvement, and greater consumer feedback with pharmacists was associated with consumers having a greater sense of the medication's effectiveness as it relates to treatment goals.; Conclusions. Community pharmacists who provide consistent AD education and monitoring can have a significant impact on consumer outcomes. Future research should confirm findings by using larger, more diverse samples and across multiple pharmacy settings. Studies might explore how stigma, pharmacist-prescriber collaboration and communication quality influences pharmacist-consumer collaboration. |
