2020 Volume 39 Issue 2 Pages 72-78
Objective : It is true that depressive patients receive instruction on the use of the medicines from community pharmacists, but it is unclear whether these patients themselves come in contact with pharmacists depending on the needs for relieving their worries about the therapy. This study aims to reveal what prevents depressive patients from consulting pharmacists in order to help improve the pharmacy environment for the patients. Methods : We addressed an online questionnaire to 1,038 depressive patients, asking “Have you ever consulted pharmacists about 1) medicine, 2) therapy and 3) difficulties in life caused by depression?” and “Have you ever given up consulting pharmacist about the same three items though you want to consult them?” If the answer was “No” for the former question, and if the answer was “Yes” for the latter, the reasons were also asked. Result : Available data from 988 patients were collected. 23.8%, 42.7%, 46.6% patients have not consulted about 1) medicine, 2) therapy and 3) difficulties in life caused by depression, respectively, though they wanted to consult pharmacists. One of the reasons for this was that they had felt refused by pharmacists before. Others were, for example, they didn’t like crowded situation and lack of privacy in pharmacy. Conclusion : This study revealed the existence of patients hesitating to consult with pharmacists. Pharmacists need to recognize that their careful response to the patients could encourage the patients’ recovery, and that they should provide comfortable circumstances for patients to consult pharmacists without hesitation.
