Serious mental illness affects almost 9.8 million[i],[ii] Americans and with only 25,000 psychiatrists practicing nationwide[iii],[iv], new research reveals psychiatrist support for delegating authority to pharmacists to administer long acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic therapies to patients living with serious mental illness.
In partnership with Weber Shandwick and KRC Research, Janssen Pharmaceuticals funded a survey of psychiatrists across the country to understand their opinions about allowing pharmacists to treat individuals living with a serious mental illness. The research finds that nearly seven in 10 psychiatrists broadly support having the option to delegate their authority to administer LAIs to appropriately trained pharmacists.
Ensuring patients adhere to medication protocols can be difficult, and nine in 10 psychiatrists believe adherence to medication is a major problem in patients living with serious mental illness. Psychiatrists who support delegating LAIs to appropriately trained pharmacists believe that the convenience of having pharmacists administer LAIs may help improve patient adherence (46%) and that trained pharmacists are capable of providing the treatments and would provide more support to staff (18%).
Psychiatrists were also exposed to compelling reasons to support or oppose pharmacist-administered LAIs. Even after exposure to points of opposition, there is still majority support of the option to delegate authority to pharmacists to administer LAIs.
To learn more about psychiatrists’ perceptions of challenges related to providing treatment to patients living with SMI, the barriers associated with administering LAIs, and their level of support for and attitude toward the delegation of treatment, please see the executive summary and the report.
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[i] United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Behavioral Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf. Accessed February 7, 2018.
[ii] United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Mental and Substance Use Disorders. https://www.samhsa.gov/disorders. Accessed February 7, 2018.
[iii] United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2016. 29-1066 Psychiatrists. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291066.htm. Accessed Dec. 13, 2017.
[iv] Petterson SM, Liaw WR, Tran C, et al. Estimating the Residency Expansion Required to Avoid Projected Primary Care Physician Shortages by 2035. Annals of Family Medicine. 2015;13:107-114. http://www.annfammed.org/content/13/2/107.full.pdf+html. Accessed on Jan. 11, 2018.
