Pharmacists Play a Key Role in Mental Health

Pharmacists can recognize mental health disorders in patients and help guide individuals toward treatment.

As trusted health care professionals, pharmacists are ideally positioned to identify symptoms and work with other colleagues to support patients with mental health disorders. This may be particularly true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many individuals either have developed mental health issues or seen existing conditions exacerbated.¹

In this issue of Pharmacy Times®, we focus on mental health. Our cover feature, written by Kathleen Kenny, points out that even before the past year, the statistics were grim, with mental illness costing more than $1 trillion annually, about half of all conditions manifesting by aged 14 years, those with severe mental health issues dying 10 to 20 years earlier than average, and just 1 mental health professional for every 10,000 individuals globally.² In her article, Kenny shares tips on recognizing mental illness through observation and screening patients to help identify those who need treatment.

Also in this issue of Pharmacy Times® is a Patient Focus article on becoming a psychiatric pharmacist, written by Jennifer Gershman, PharmD, CPh. “This career path opens the door to a variety of opportunities for pharmacists to provide comprehensive medication management and improve health outcomes for patients with psychiatric and neurologic disorders as part of an interdisciplinary team,” Gershman says.

Other coverage includes articles on treating cardiovascular disease, OTC options for the common cold, and, for pharmacy technicians, understanding medication expiration dates.

Thanks for reading!