A Collaborative Care Model between General Practitioners and Clinical Pharmacists in a Community Health Centre Setting in Depression Treatment.

BACKGROUND: A collaborative care model between clinical pharmacists (CP) and general practitioners (GPs) for treating patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) has not been described yet in the medical literature in Central Europe. Therefore, the main aim of this paper was compared standard of care and collaborative care model including clinical pharmacist in a systematic review form. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: A systematic search in Pubmed/Medline using the terms pharmacist, depression, and primary care in Medline through to September 2016 was conducted to identify randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). The patient's data for the case report was obtained from the medical records. RESULTS: 23 RCTs were found. In total 3 RCTs were included in this systematic review. Efficacy in reducing depressive symptoms in collaborative care model compared to the standard of care (without clinical pharmacist) were shown in all RCTs. A collaborative care model also showed positive treatment outcomes in case report. CONCLUSION: This systematic review shows positive treatment outcomes in patients included in collaborative care model compared to current standard of care. This positive case report shows evidence for the effectiveness of a collaborative care model with a CP in a primary care setting. CPs can assist GPs in choosing the appropriate pharmacotherapy.