In recent years, one of Japan’s policies for controlling increased medical expenses is promoting self-medication. Owing to their influence on the health of young people, energy drinks (a caffeine-containing beverage) have attracted attention. However, only a few surveys have evaluated their use in Japan. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire survey on university students on self-medication interest and energy drink use trend, involving 180 students aged 18-26 years. The results showed 28.3% of the students were interested in self-medication and 4.4% were knowledgeable on the self-medication tax system. Additionally, 73.9% of them used over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, especially common cold medicines (65.0%). Further, 77.2% of them consumed energy drinks, mainly to stay awake (61.9%), and most frequently from evening to midnight (54.7%). Furthermore, 26.6% of the students had experienced discomfort or poor health when taking energy drinks, with the most common symptoms being “tachycardia” (n＝13) and “sleep disorders” (n＝12). Pharmacy and drugstore pharmacists could contribute to caffeine overdose prevention by educating the public on the caffeine content of common cold medications and various foods and drinks such as energy drinks. It is desirable for future studies to investigate in depth the usage of caffeine-containing beverages, including energy drinks.

The purpose of this study was to examine how pharmacists can help patients and consumers to obtain appropriate drug information online. We clarified what kind of information about medicines patients and consumers were seeking online. “Yahoo! Chiebukuro”, the largest knowledge sharing community in Japan, was surveyed. We extracted questions related to drugs and healthcare posted in the period of August 1-7, 2017. The survey period was from January to April 2019. Questions that could not be answered by the pharmacist’s clinical judgment were excluded. The content of the extracted questions was analyzed.

The extracted 283 posts included 345 questions. Questions related to prescribed drugs comprised 69.0% of questions and questions related to over-the-counter drugs comprised 17.2% of questions. Overall, 69.9% of the questions required expert judgment to be answered properly, although 80% of questions were posted within the pharmacy opening hours. The breakdown of 180 questions on prescribed drugs included 48 (26.7%) questions on drugs that affect the nervous system and sensory organs, 28 (15.6%) questions on drugs against pathogenic microorganisms, and 27 (15.0%) questions on analgesic/anti-inflammatory/allergic drugs. With regard to annual turnover, it was revealed that an estimated 15,000 medical and health care consultations were made online. A pharmacist should give instructions for taking prescribed drugs based on the assumption that patients and consumers will search for information on the internet.

Distigmine has reversible and persistent cholinesterase (ChE) antagonism, and is used for the dysuria due to low activity bladders such as the neurogenic bladder dysfunction widely postoperatively, but fatal cases were reported by cholinergic syndrome. Therefore a dose was limited to 5mg only for adaptation of “the dysuria due to hypotonic bladder such as after surgery and the neurogenic bladder dysfunction” in March, 2010. In the current study, we examined a ministerial policy in the package insert revision using Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database (JADER). Using a side effect report registered with JADER from January, 2004 to June, 2016, we calculated Reporting Odds Ratio (ROR) which was the index of the safe signal of the medical supplies adverse event and we compared number of reports and ROR of the cholinergic syndrome by the distigmine in approximately the measure in March, 2010 and evaluated it. The number of reports of the cholinergic syndrome by the distigmine was 138 cases before March 2010 and 65 cases after March 2010. After a measure, the number of reports decreased. The possibility that the package insert revision of the distigmine contributed to a decrease in cholinergic syndrome onset was suggested. Whereas monitoring careful sequentially needs the onset of the cholinergic syndrome in constant frequency to be found.

This study aimed to assess the impact of a lecture on knowledge about dementia prevention conducted by pharmacy students for visitors at dementia café. A pre- and post-intervention design was used to evaluate comprehension, effectiveness, and retention of knowledge. The lecture focused on the diet and sleep regime recommended for dementia prevention. First, before the lecture, the visitors were asked to complete a written test that contained three multiple choice and four open-ended questions. The pre-test also asked questions related to a poster on the subject, to which the visitors were exposed in the café. After the lecture, a post-test was conducted with the same content as the pre-test. The analysis revealed that the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Furthermore, participants took a remade test with three multiple choice and three open-ended questions. This additional test related to the questions on which the participants received low scores in the pre-test. The evaluation of the remade test was conducted over a period of four months. During all four months of the evaluation, the scores for the remade test were found to be above 75. The validity of the lecture and of knowledge retention were proved through these tests. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the lectures contributed to an increase in the knowledge of dementia prevention among the visitors at the café.

Currently, pharmacists must learn the basic skills and knowledge required to conduct physical assessment (PA) in order to obtain patient information. To address this need, Kindai University Faculty of Pharmacy requires students to enroll in a training course for PA. One component of the course for 4th grade 155 students is the use of Web Test that is designed assess student performance of pharmacotherapy with PA. This paper reports on Web Test results. The 15-question Web Test is conducted on Moodle. The Web Test is administered three times (pretest, posttest (after training course) and follow-up test (two month later)). The averages for each Web Test were respectively, 9.5 ± 2.0, 12.9 ± 0.9, 11.9 ± 2.7, which indicates positive results for posttest and follow-up test (p<0.01, Tukey test). This result suggests that the PA training course is raising student awareness regarding PA.

The refill-prescription system widely implemented overseas has been discussed toward its legislation for many years but has not been enforced yet in Japan. In considering introduction of such a refill-prescription system, numerical economic effects of its introduction can be expected in this paper. Based on the survey by Kurata at al. in 2016, the first and second groups were defined for patients with prescriptions of the same medicine more than twice for 14 days or more (20.2%) and for patients in the first group who were prescribed medication for more than 180 days and visited the pharmacy over 330 days (4.4%), respectively. The number of refill-prescriptions were estimated from the total number of the prescriptions put out in 2016. In the first group 166.7 million prescriptions were replaced by refill prescription, resulting in the reduction of medical and insurance expenses by 155.6 and 108.9 billion yens, respectively, while in the second group the reduction of 36.31 million prescriptions as well as 33.9 and 23.7 billion yens for those expenses, respectively, were expected. The monthly working time of overworking doctors with poor working environment was also calculated to be shortened by 6.1〜12.1 and 1.3〜2.6 hours for these two groups, respectively. Additionally, the introduction of the refill-prescription system was estimated to reduce the physical burden of one patient by 2.7〜5.3 hours per year for consultation and waiting hours in the medical institutions. Therefore, the refill-prescription system is thought to be useful for efficient allocation of medical resources to patients.