A PHARMACOTHERAPY REVIEW IN PATIENTS ATTENDING THE SPECIALIZED COMPONENT FOR PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES IN A SANTA CATARINA COUNTY, BRAZIL

Abstract

The specialized component for pharmaceutical services (Componente Especializado da Assistência Farmacêutica - CEAF) consists of a strategy to access high-cost treatments and new diseases that seeks to ensure full pharmaceutical treatment at the outpatient level. The aim of this study was to carry out a pharmacotherapy review in patients attending the CEAF program in a county at Santa Catarina, Brazil. This was a cross-sectional study through interviews conducted from August through September 2014. Twenty-two patients (59.9% men; mean age 47.9 years; SD 15.2) were interviewed. Among them, 42.9% had completed high school, and 33.3% had completed primary school. The average number of drugs per patient was 4.7 (SD 3.5), of which 30.1% were for the cardiovascular system and 26.2% for the nervous system. The most prevalent disease was schizophrenia (23.1%). Among the participants, 54.6% had problems with the use of medications, such as dose schedule, interaction between medicines and interaction with food, and 90.9% had problems related to pharmaceutical therapy, such as medication storage and transport. These patients received oral instructions and review reports with written guidelines, schedules, and pictograms. The higher the number of drugs used, the more frequent the problems were. The participants reported that the pharmaceutical services helped them to take their medications correctly. This study highlights the importance of the specialized pharmaceutical services to achieve better therapeutic results, considering the high cost of treatments offered by the CEAF program.