The compliance to prescribed drug treatment and referral in a psychiatric emergency service: a follow-up study

• Autor(a) principal: Calfat, Elie Leal de Barros [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Pan, Pedro Mario [UNIFESP], Shiozawa, Pedro, Chaves, Ana Cristina [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-44462012000200006; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/7109
• topic: emergency psychiatry; public-sector psychiatry; compliance; psiquiatria de emergência; psiquiatria do setor público; aderência

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the compliance to the prescribed drug treatment and referral of patients discharged from a psychiatric emergency service (PES). METHOD: From a total of 330 patients enrolled in the study, 175 (53%) agreed to a telephone inquiry 60 days after the PES visit regarding the status of the prescribed medication use and the outpatient referral. RESULTS 227 patients (68.8%) received prescription for a psychotropic medication and all patients were referred to an outpatient psychiatry service. Of the 175 patients who agreed to participate, 153 (87.4%) were successfully contacted by phone. Out of these, 97 patients (63.4%) were using the prescribed medication and 83 (54.2%) had scheduled a community appointment after 60 days. Patients who received a prescription had a greater chance of being on psychotropic medications at follow-up (OR 2.88; IC 95% 1.33-6.22; p = 0.007). However, the prescription was not associated with being in regular outpatient treatment (OR 0.76; IC 95% 0.036-1.61; p = 0.475). CONCLUSIONS: Psychotropic medications were routinely prescribed for PES patients, but this practice did not increase compliance to outpatient treatment referral after two months.