Reporting sexual function disorders caused by antipsychotic drugs: is there a role for the community pharmacy?

Sexual function disorders are frequent adverse effects of antipsychotic use. These effects can lead to non-compliance to medication, which dramatically worsen the outcome of the psychotic disease. Detecting sexual dysfunction by the carers may be difficult, since feelings of embarrassment may occur in both care-taker as in patient. In order to prevent underreporting, strategies to recognise sexual dysfunction should be developed, based upon collaboration between care providers of the psychotic patient. Community pharmacies in many countries can detect non-compliance to medication in prescription data and report this to psychiatric services of the patient. Exchanging information by cross-sectoral networks may optimise the disease management of the psychotic patient.