2016 年 42 巻 12 号 p. 795-808
Patients who have mental health issues, including depression, tend to have lower adherence and have higher recurrence than those with other diseases. The aim of this study is to comprehend the state of community pharmacists' feeling of their services for patients with depression and determine factors capable of improving pharmacists' services for patients with depression in community pharmacies. A questionnaire was sent to 1000 pharmacies chosen at random between July-August 2015. The survey was completed by 365 community pharmacists with a response rate of 36.5%. We used 272 responses of 365 (74.5%) after excluding missing values. Path analysis was applied to the results of the survey. The strength of stigma towards depression had the most influence on the feeling of difficulty in dealing with patients who have depression. A statistically significant positive path was observed from the frequency of participating in an academic meeting about mental disorders, including depression, against the understanding of depression. It is considered that relieving the difficulty in dealing with patients who have depression can improve pharmacists' services to the patients. The results indicate that we cannot relieve the difficulty in dealing with patients who have depression only by gaining common experience as a pharmacist. Along with gaining a better understanding of depression, it is important to remove misunderstandings and prejudices surrounding depression in order to improve the pharmacists' services for patients with depression.