The current practice of psychiatric pharmacy is incredibly varied in terms of practice setting, activities performed, and services provided. This paper provides a description of the current clinical landscape of psychiatric pharmacy. This study is notable for being the first comprehensive survey of current psychiatric pharmacy practice in the United States.
Searching for Solutions
According to the literature reviewed, there is evidence to suggest that having a psychiatric pharmacist on the health care team improves patient outcomes across a wide variety of inpatient and outpatient settings from general practice to specialized services.
Last Updated: 2022-02-07
One of AAPP’s primary strategies is to partner with others in the health professions through coalitions. This collective work allows us to advocate for legislation and regulation that is favorable toward the profession and the patients we serve but with a much bigger, more powerful voice. To see coalition letters that AAPP has joined, click here. Partnering with coalitions:
AAPP Pharmacist Toolkit: Harm Reduction Strategies for People Who Inject Drugs
Toolkit on harm reduction provides tips and guideline summaries in the following areas: consequences of injection drug use, harm reduction services, activities, policies, stigma, potential barriers, professional/policy support, resources, and data sources.
Suggested Reading List - Top 15 References
The AAPP Residents and New Practitioners Committee is pleased to provide a suggested reading list of the top references as a service and as a forum for member discussion. Consider these resources as a foundation for your reference library.
AAPP Pharmacist Toolkit: Medication Management of Opioid Use Disorder
Toolkit with tips and guideline summaries on opioid use disorder: screening, diagnosis, withdrawal, medications for treatment, overdose prevention education/treatment, special populations, co-occurring disorders, harm reduction strategies, and references.
Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) Guide
This free Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) guide provides webinars introducing CMM and helpful tools for implementing CMM.
AAPP Pharmacist Toolkit: Hepatitis C
This free pharmacist toolkit provides quick tips on an overview, HCV medications quick references, drug interactions of Hepatitis C Virus treatments, and references.
AAPP Pharmacist Toolkit: Buprenorphine Initiation and Dosing Strategies
Free toolkit provides tips and guidance in the following areas of Buprenorphine Initiation: Buprenorphine Treatment, Traditional Buprenorphine Initiation, Low Dose Overlap Initiation, Special Populations, Harm Reduction, Helpful Resources, and References
What I Wish I Knew
These free articles are intended to provide advice from experts for students, residents, and new practitioners.
Psychiatric pharmacists are advanced practice clinical pharmacists committed to being part of an interdisciplinary team treating substance use disorders often in combination with serious mental illness. AAPP members have authored numerous substance use disorder toolkits, documents, and educational activities to further the knowledge of pharmacists and other health care professionals.
Psychiatric pharmacists are advanced practice clinical pharmacists who specialize in mental health care. With an extensive knowledge of medication management, they are skilled at treating the whole patient. They strengthen the mental health team by working directly with patients, improving outcomes and saving lives.
Self-reported opioid misuse within the past year occurred in almost 10 million participants over the age of 12 who participated in the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. In the same survey, 2.7 million self-reported a diagnosis of opioid use disorder, approximately 700,000 individuals reported a heroin related substance use disorder, and about 2.3 million participants reported a prescription pain reliever substance use disorder