ABSTRACT

Background

The first-line treatment for insomnia is cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, there is persistent use of pharmacotherapy, particularly, sedative-hypnotics. Consultant pharmacists can provide medication review services for people using multiple medications. Therefore, they are well placed to provide sleep health/insomnia care with regard to sedative-hypnotic use and behavioral treatment recommendations/sleep health education. However, this avenue is, as yet, unexplored.

Objectives

To explore consultant pharmacists’ current sleep health-related provisions and what their perspectives are around developing/implementing a consultant pharmacist-led behavioral service for insomnia.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience-based sample of consultant pharmacists. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and inductively analyzed.

Results

Twenty-four consultant pharmacists were interviewed. Three themes were gauged: 1) Trivializing insomnia and sleep health, 2) Providing patient-centered care, 3) Service implementation - What do we need to consider? Participants commonly dealt with older patients and frequently encountered patients with sleep complaints/taking sleep medications. Generally, it was believed that sleep health was given minimal priority, with other comorbidities taking precedence in health provisions. Patients’ attitudes toward management approaches were regarded critical to future treatment developments. While interested in expanding their sleep health/insomnia practice, participants expressed the need for appropriate education/training, funding, and collaborative treatment frameworks.

Conclusion

Insomnia/sleep health concerns are growing. Primary health professionals need to scale up their sleep health-care provisions to accommodate for this health demand. Consultant pharmacists are interested/willing to expand their sleep-related practice and provide evidence-based insomnia therapies; however, factors such as education/training, service configuration support, and patient attitudes should be addressed.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚顾问药剂师在睡眠保健中的潜在作用：探索改善失眠管理的新途径

摘要

背景

失眠的一线治疗是认知行为疗法。然而，持续使用药物疗法，特别是镇静催眠药。顾问药剂师可以为使用多种药物的人提供药物审查服务。因此，他们可以很好地提供关于镇静催眠药使用和行为治疗建议/睡眠健康教育的睡眠健康/失眠护理。然而，这条途径目前还没有被探索。

目标

探索顾问药剂师当前与睡眠健康相关的规定，以及他们对开发/实施顾问药剂师主导的失眠行为服务的看法。

方法

对基于便利的顾问药剂师样本进行了定性半结构化访谈。采访被录音、转录和归纳分析。

结果

采访了 24 位顾问药剂师。评估了三个主题：1）轻视失眠和睡眠健康，2）提供以患者为中心的护理，3）服务实施——我们需要考虑什么？参与者通常与老年患者打交道，并且经常遇到有睡眠问题/服用睡眠药物的患者。一般来说，人们认为睡眠健康被给予最低限度的优先考虑，其他合并症在健康规定中处于优先地位。患者对管理方法的态度被认为对未来的治疗发展至关重要。虽然有兴趣扩大他们的睡眠健康/失眠实践，但参与者表示需要适当的教育/培训、资金和协作治疗框架。

结论

失眠/睡眠健康问题正在增加。初级卫生专业人员需要扩大他们的睡眠保健供应，以适应这种健康需求。顾问药剂师有兴趣/愿意扩大他们的睡眠相关实践并提供循证失眠治疗；但是，应解决教育/培训、服务配置支持和患者态度等因素。