Medical Students' Perceptions on the Role of Pharmacists.

BACKGROUND:: Over the last decade, the pharmacists' role in health-care services has evolved and expanded to include more direct patient care and disease management services. OBJECTIVE:: To evaluate medical students' perceptions on pharmacists, their role in health care, and demographic or experiential factors that influenced the medical students' opinions. METHODS:: Medical students, at a Midwest, academic medical center, were solicited to complete a cross-sectional, web-based survey consisting of 3 domains: basic demographics, knowledge of the pharmacy profession, and opinions of pharmacists. RESULTS:: Participants supported pharmacists' role in recommending and monitoring drug therapy. However, participants did not support pharmacists' role in performing physical examinations, health screenings, or managing patients with chronic diseases. The main factors that influenced perceptions of pharmacists were female gender and frequent (weekly or more) interaction with a pharmacist or pharmacy student. Neither year in medical school nor participation in intercollaborative practice significantly influenced perceptions of pharmacists. CONCLUSION:: This survey highlights the need to improve the education medical students receive about pharmacists' contribution to the health-care team and the importance of increasing the interaction between medical students and pharmacists or pharmacy students to enhance interprofessional collaboration.

Psychotropic medication use in hospitalized patients with borderline personality disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Use of medications to treat symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is controversial. The purpose of this study was to describe psychotropic medication use in hospitalized patients with BPD and compare with a control group. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted on hospitalized patients aged 18-65 years having a diagnosis of BPD and compared them with a control group of patients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) without a personality disorder. Patients were excluded from the BPD group if other personality disorders were recorded. Charts were reviewed for demographics and psychotropic medication usage both prior to admission and at discharge. RESULTS: This study included 165 patients (85 in BPD; 80 in MDD). Prior to admission and upon discharge, patients in the BPD group were prescribed significantly more psychotropic medications than patients with MDD (3.21 vs 2.10; P < .001 and 2.87 vs 2.35; P < .05, respectively). Patients in the BPD group were significantly more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and miscellaneous agents compared with the MDD group. On admission, significantly more BPD patients were prescribed multiple sedative agents (37.6% vs 21.3%; P < .05), but because of the discontinuation of sedative agents, this difference was nonsignificant upon discharge. DISCUSSION: This study found increased medication utilization among patients with BPD. Polypharmacy may increase the risk of side effects, drug interactions, and drug toxicity for BPD patients. Clinicians need to carefully evaluate the efficacy and risk of medications prescribed in patients with BPD.