NEOMED Professor Discusses Psychiatric Pharmacy

Northeast Ohio Medical University’s Student College of Clinical Pharmacy (SCCP) and College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) chapters hosted Chris Paxos, Pharm.D., on Thursday, Feb. 20, to present about his experience in psychiatric pharmacy. Jessica Bular, a second-year College of Pharmacy student and CPNP president-elect, contributed the following reflection.

Dr. Paxos, an associate professor of pharmacy practice and psychiatry, most recently practiced as a pharmacotherapy specialist in psychiatric medicine at Cleveland Clinic Akron General for the past 10 years. He has experienced his fair share of interesting and complex patients – and gained an overwhelming sense of passion and appreciation for his field.

Referring to the field of psychiatric pharmacy as “the interface between psychiatry and medicine,” Dr. Paxos provided SCCP and CPNP members with an overview of the tasks and responsibilities he performed on a typical day at Akron General hospital.

From working up patients’ charts and rounding with physicians on the inpatient psychiatric ward to sitting in on formulary meetings and leading medication education groups with the inpatient population, it seems as if there’s always something to do. Dr. Paxos cited this busy workflow as one the deciding factors when he chose inpatient practice over outpatient practice. He said he enjoys the fast-paced environment that brings in interesting patients, sometimes with complex cases to work through.

Seeing a quick turnaround and helping patients get back on their feet is one of many facets of inpatient psychiatric care that Dr. Paxos and his colleges feel is rewarding about the specialty.

Dr. Paxos acknowledges that his practice is often not as straightforward as other specialties. Each patient is unique and every situation they face is different from that of the last patient.

Perhaps the important takeaway from our meeting with Dr. Paxos was to take the time to get to know your patients before making recommendations or changes to their lifestyle or medication regimen.

People, and patients, are all individual; getting to know a patient’s lifestyle, medical history, and social factors is vital to providing the best care possible for our patients — regardless of our specialty within our field.

With psychiatric pharmacy, Dr. Paxos feels as though he has the opportunity to be more creative with his treatment plans than other specialties can be. Complex guidelines, confusing literature and limited treatment options for some diagnoses lead him to think of psychiatric pharmacy as a “mixture of art and science.”

Despite these challenges in his field, Dr. Paxos remains passionate about helping underrepresented patients and finds his work very rewarding.