Profile of patients with adaptive disorder visiting Spanish community pharmacies

Objective: The main objective was to know the profiles of subjects meeting the diagnostic criteria for adjustment disorder, in the usual consultation of the Spanish community pharmacies.

Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study at national level over a sample of 1512 subjects. The socio-demographic and clinical profile characteristics were evaluated, as well as mood and health status, obtained by interview with the pharmacist. Mood was assessed by a facial expression scale graded from 1 (laughter) to 7 (tears). Health status was assessed with questions on mobility, self-care, pain and discomfort, sleep and energy, mood, interpersonal skills and cognition. The total length of the experimental phase was of 7 months. Descriptive statistics was mainly used.

Results: The studied subject population meeting the diagnostic criteria for adjustment disorder had a mean age of 43.1±14.8 years, being 63.0 % women. The 61.8 % of subjects consulted due to depressed mood most of the day in the 60.8 % of the subjects and during more than 2 weeks in the 79.0 % of subjects. The 37.1 % of subjects assessed their mood as sad (grading 5-7). The 38.1 % of subjects presented depressed mood and anxiety. The 12.0 % of subjects presented subclinical depressive symptoms. A significant relationship was found (p<0.001) between emotional troubles and physical health.

Conclusion: Most frequent symptoms from patients referring symptoms of adjustment disorder in this study are cause of frequent consultation in the community pharmacy, which would suggest that the community pharmacists would help in the early detection and approach of this pathology with their intervention.