Pharmacist intervention improves chronic pain management

Pharmacists can significantly enhance chronic pain management by guaranteeing the quality of medicine use, thus lowering pain intensity, suggest the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis.

“Pharmacists have been contributing to the management of chronic pain, ensuring the quality use of medicine,” the investigators said. “However, there is diversity in the interventions provided by pharmacists and their impact.”

They searched six electronic databases from inception through June 2020 for studies published in English investigating the intervention provided by pharmacists in chronic pain management. Articles that examined the impact of pharmacist intervention individually or multidisciplinary teams including pharmacists for chronic pain management were included.

Fourteen studies, including a total of 2,365 participants, met the eligibility criteria. Of these, six were randomized controlled trials while the rest were observational studies in which pharmacists provided intervention individually or in collaboration with other healthcare professionals.

The most common intervention provided by pharmacists was medication review. In a pooled analysis, pharmacist-led interventions resulted in reduced pain intensity (–0.22, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –0.35 to –0.09; moderate certainty) among participants with chronic pain.

Opiate stewardship provided by pharmacists was effective, but there were mixed results on the impact of the intervention on physical functioning, anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Of note, pharmacist intervention was more expensive than standard treatment.

“Further studies with rigorous design are needed to measure the impact of pharmacist-provided intervention individually or in a multidisciplinary team on the economic benefit and other health outcomes,” the investigators said.