Effects of Pharmacists' Consultation on Serum Cholesterol Level Using Drug History Notebook or Drug Instruction Sheets for Outpatients with Hypercholesterolemia.

To clarify the effects of providing drug information to improve patient compliance, we provided drug information and pharmacist consultations using two methods for 6 months each to outpatients receiving pravastatin at our hypercholesterolemia clinic. To monitor drug compliance, changes in the total serum cholesterol level were evaluated. In 29 patients given pharmacists' consultation using drug history notebooks, the total serum cholesterol level decreased significantly from 228±35mg/dL before consultation to 217±37mg/dL after 6 months. The total cholesterol level of the control patients (n=34) was 230±45mg/dL before pharmacist consultations and 230±36mg/dL 6 months thereafter, showed no changes. From 10 months after the initiation of the investigation, pharmacist consultations were given to all outpatients with hypercholesterolemia receiving pravastatin. In 60 patients (including the above 34 controls) receiving pharmacist consultations using drug instruction sheets but not using a drug history notebook, the serum total cholesterol level decreased from 233±43 mg/dL before to 218±37mg/dL at 6 months after receiving consultations. These results indicated that providing drug information and pharmacist consultations improved the compliance of the outpatients, and thereby resulting in a significant decrease in the serum total cholesterol level.