Pharmaceutical care for people with depressive disorders: A description of academic production in the context of Brazilian Graduate Studies

Abstract

Depressive disorder is a globally prevalent multifactorial condition that affects millions of people, significantly compromising their quality of life and well-being, and resulting in significant biopsychosocial distress. For those living with this disorder, different strategies are employed, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. During drug treatment, Medication-Related Problems may arise, including situations in which patients in mental distress use their home medications as a suicide tool. From this perspective, pharmacists play an increasingly important role in the management of mental health conditions, assisting in the safety and effectiveness of treatment. This study aimed to review the available literature to analyze the importance of pharmaceutical care for people with depressive disorders. This was a descriptive and observational study of the State of Knowledge. Data were collected from the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations of the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES), without temporal limitation, to identify patterns, trends and gaps. The documents included needed to contain information pertinent to pharmaceutical care provided to individuals diagnosed with depressive disorder, written in Portuguese, English or Spanish, with the participation of Brazilian people. Pertinent information included activities such as health education, pharmaceutical guidance, dispensing, pharmaceutical care or consultation, pharmacotherapeutic follow-up, systematic recording of activities, measurement and evaluation of results. After the identification, selection and eligibility processes, two productions for the quantitative-qualitative synthesis were included for reading and analysis, addressing central themes such as pharmaceutical consultation and pharmacotherapeutic follow-up. It is suggested that this research enabled the visualization of pharmaceutical care activities and services for patients with depressive disorders, identifying potentialities for optimizing pharmacotherapeutic effectiveness, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, and identifying strategies to minimize the impacts of therapeutic decision-making, including pharmaceutical, pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2024.012-018