Conhecimento do paciente sobre psicofármacos, estratégias de mensuração e fatores associados: uma revisão de escopo.

Abstract

The concept of Patient Knowledge about Medication (PKM) is defined as the body of information acquired by the patient regarding their medication that is necessary for its proper usage. Considering the rates of psychotropic medication use in recent years, both continued and otherwise, the matter of Patient Knowledge of Psychotropic (PKP) demands increased attention. Unlike PKM, however, there is no consensus nor methodological studies regarding the definition of the concept of PKP. Therefore, it is fundamental to conduct studies that help in better operationalizing and comprehending PKP and related factors. The objective of the study was systematically examining the scientific productions that address patient knowledge about psychopharmaceuticals and identify definitions, dimensions, measurement instruments and factors related to this construct. A scoping review was carried out in accordance with the directives provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute and was reported following the PRISMAScR guidelines. The scoping review protocol has been registered in the OSF platform. Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Virtual Health Library were searched. The triad of population (patients using psychotropic drugs), concept (Patient Medication Knowledge) and context (surveys and questionnaires) was used to guide the search strategy. Observational, experimental, methodological and mixed studies were included and factors associated with patient knowledge about psychopharmaceuticals were identified. Instruments for measuring patient knowledge about psychotropic drugs were analyzed. A total of 6.664 studies were selected, with 73 being taken from the BVS database; 3571 from Medline via PubMed; 212 from Web of Science; 955 from Embase; 1853 from Scopus. After the removal of duplicates, the number of remaining studies was that of 5.173.The scoping review included 38 studies, the majority conducted in Asia. No conceptual definition of patient knowledge about psychotropic drugs was identified. Six instruments were identified to measure patient knowledge about psychotropic drugs. A variety of determinants os knowledge and associated factors were evident between the studies. It is concluded that there is an evident gap in the theoretical and operational definition of the construct of patient knowledge about psychotropic drugs. The number of measurement instruments available is small and intended for lithium carbonate and certain therapeutic classes of psychotropic drugs anxiolytics and antipsychotics. The determinants that operationally express the specificities of the use of psychotropic drugs, such as tolerance, dependence and duration of treatment, emerged in knowledge measurement studies, but no items on abstinence or withdrawal syndromes were evident. The level of education, age, number of medications, country of birth, skill to report adverse reactions, family relationships and professional approach are factors associated with the patient's knowledge about psychotropic drugs.