This experimental design study aimed to study the effects of pharmacist counseling for Parkinson’s disease outpatients at Prasat Neurological Institute towards drug-related problems, medication adherence, patient knowledge on Parkinson’s disease and treatment as well as patient’s satisfaction on pharmacist counseling service. Ninety four patients with Parkinson’s disease who visited outpatient service during October 2008 to February 2009 were randomly recruited into the study. They were stratified according to severity of the Parkinson’s disease stages (The Hoehn and Yahr scale). Patients were paired with the disease stage and then were randomly assigned to either the study group (counselled) or control group, each group comprised 47 patients. Data were collected from patient’s self-reporting forms and interviewing forms, before and after counseling by pharmacist. The study group was also monitored for drug related problems by telephone in week 1 and 6 after first counseling by pharmacist. After counseling , it was found that the number of drug related problems were significantly decreased in the study group and were significantly less than the control group (p=0.000). Mean scores of medication adherence, mean scores of knowledge about Parkinson’s disease and treatment, as well as mean scores of satisfaction in counseling service in the study group were significantly higher than the control group (p < 0.01). Results from this study reveals that Pharmacist’s counseling service can significantly help improving pharmacotherapy in Parkinson’s disease outpatients by decreasing drug related problems and increasing medication adherence, patient knowledge and patient satisfaction, as well.
