Pharmacotherapy Follow up in Mental Health: Which Outcomes Change in a Short Period?

Objectives: Investigate the outcome changes in patients with depression and anxiety during a pharmacotherapy follow up service, in a short period. Materials and Methods: A randomized and controlled trial of 70 adults was developed in Psychosocial Care Centers in Brazil. Patients in the intervention group received pharmacotherapy follow up service according over a 4-month period. The control group received traditional service. After the 4-month period, patients of the control group were invited to participate for another four months receiving pharmacotherapy follow up service (control group post-intervention). The primary outcomes (medication adherence, anxiety and depression rates, quality of life) and the variations between groups were compared. Results: The evaluation of the control group data showed no statistically significant difference for parameters. However, in relation to adherence to pharmacotherapy, there was a statistically significant difference in the intervention group, between consultations 1 and 3 and consultations 1 and 4. For the clinical parameters (depression and anxiety) and humanistic (quality of life), there was no difference between the intervention group consultations. For the patients in the control group post-intervention (consultations 1 to 4), when compared to moment 4 of the control group, the levels of depression decreased between the moment 4 control group and the moments of the pharmaceutical appointment 2, 3 and 4. Conclusion: This study points out that these patients should take much more time being followed up, in order to improve the clinical and humanistic outcomes. Also, standardized documentation and records have to be provided in this pharmaceutical service.