A Study and Report on the Role of Clinical Pharmacy Services Provided by the Doctor of Pharmacy in the Management of Thyroid Disorders (Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism) to a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Thyroid hormones affect the function of virtually every organ system. In children, thyroid hormone is critical for normal growth and development but in adults, the main role of these thyroid hormones is to maintain stability. The main thyroid hormones which play such an important are the Thyroxine (T4) and Triiodothyronine (T3) hormones. Hence, Thyroid disorders encompass a variety of disease states affecting thyroid hormone production or secretion that result in alteration in the metabolic stability. Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism are the clinical and biochemical syndromes resulting from increased and decreased thyroid hormone production, respectively. Thyroid disorder/ disease is more or less considered to be a type of chronic disease, henceforth Clinical Pharmacy and the Clinical Pharmacists play a vital role in helping such patients to cope up and also overcome the disorder.Clinical pharmacy is the branch of pharmacy and is the practice of pharmacy that helps the pharmacists provide services to promote rational and economical drug therapy that is appropriate,safe and cost effective which in turn optimizes the use of medication and promote wellness,health and disease prevention.Clinical pharmacists provide care for patients in all health care settings. Clinical pharmacists often work in collaboration with physicians,nurse practitioners and other health care practitioners. There are various Clinical Pharmacy services that can be offered to various outpatients and inpatients such as pharmacovigilance services, development and management of hospital formulary, patient counselling and education along with discharge medication, drug information services, poison centre, and ward round participation.Aim: The main aim of this article is to determine the role of the Clinical Pharmacy Services for the management of thyroid disorders mainly Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism. To ensure safe, effective, economic and patient friendly with the knowledge inputs of each professional practice. Objectives: To study the Role of the Clinical Pharmacy Services/ Doctor of Pharmacy profession in the management of Thyroid Disorders. To monitor drug therapy efficiently, to attain desired pharmacological effect of the drug, to reduce risk of toxicity and thereby improving the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of the patient. Methodology: The details regarding his/her condition of thyroid disorder were collected from the patients’ case sheets, medication charts, drug and poison information queries, ADR reporting forms, drug interaction forms etc either present in the nursing stations or through direct interaction with the patient. In regards to this, appropriate patient counselling was also given to patients according to his/ her condition of thyroid. Discussion and results: The sample size for the study conducted was taken to be around 120 patients and the role of all related Clinical Pharmacy Services/ activities such as monitoring for drug therapy, adverse drug reactions, medication errors, providing drug and poison information to the concerned patients or caregivers and thus providing patient counselling for improvement of health and quality of life for patients, for the management of Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism is determined. Conclusion: It is concluded that the management of thyroid disorders is rather a burden on individual patients and this can be overcome by providing the Clinical Pharmacy Services to patients suffering from thyroid disorders, which can be provided by the Doctor of Pharmacy Professionals thereby improving the quality of life of patient so that their ability to manage thyroid conditions is improved to the optimum maximum level.