Modification and evaluation of tools for pharmaceutical care of patients with schizophrenia in non-psychiatric hospitals

Abstract

Nowadays, the hospital pharmacists in Thailand still lack the tools for pharmaceutical care of patients with schizophrenia. The objectives of this study were to modify and evaluate four tools for the care of schizophrenic patients. The Pharmacy Mental Status Examination, the Modified Simpson Angus Scale, the Modified Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale, and the Modified Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale were modified from the original tools by selecting the items related to the context of pharmaceutical care provided by hospital pharmacists. The evaluation methods were also modified. All of them were modified by two experienced psychiatrists and one experienced pharmacist. A total of 156 volunteer patients were involved in the evaluation of the modified tools. The results showed that all tools had acceptable content validity and internal consistency using the itemobjective congruence index and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, respectively. The concurrent validity represented by Spearman rho values indicated that all tools had a strong relationship with the original tools. The inter-rater reliability represented by quadraticweighted kappa values showed at least good agreement between the experienced psychiatrist and pharmacist. It can be concluded that all modified tools had good validity and reliability and would be useful for routine work of hospital pharmacists in nonpsychiatric hospital settings.

Keywords

• pharmaceutical care tools
• schizophrenia
• antipsychotic medications
• extrapyramidal symptoms