The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan,
established in 1880, is one of Japan’s oldest and most distinguished academic
societies. The Society currently has around 15,000 members. It publishes three
monthly scientific journals. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (Chem. Pharm.
Bull.) began publication in 1953 as Pharmaceutical Bulletin. It covers
chemistry fields in the pharmaceutical and health sciences. Biological and
Pharmaceutical Bulletin (Biol. Pharm. Bull.) began publication in 1978 as the
Journal of Pharmacobio-Dynamics, which then merged the Journal of Health
Science, another former Society’s journal, in 2012. It covers various
biological topics in the pharmaceutical and health sciences. Yakugaku Zasshi
(Japanese for “Pharmaceutical Science Journal”) has the longest history, with
publication beginning in 1881. Yakugaku Zasshi is published mostly in Japanese,
except for some articles related to clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical
education, which are published in English.
The main aim of the Society’s journals is
to advance the pharmaceutical sciences with research reports, scientific
communication, and high-quality discussion. The average review time for
articles submitted to the journals is around one month for first decision. The
complete texts of all of the Society’s journals can be freely accessed through
J-STAGE. The Society’s editorial committee hopes that the content of its
journals will be useful to your research, and also invites you to submit your
own work to the journals. Chairman of Committee Hidehiko Nakagawa
Graduate
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University
For this study, we defined “mental health support at pharmacies” as “mental support and reassurance through explanations for medications and illnesses, and health consultations,” which are not difficult from a mental health perspective, and conducted a survey on how pharmacies can contribute to mental health in local residents (n=580). However, according to this definition, 80.3% answered that they had not received “mental health support at pharmacies.” We then asked 77 people who had experienced “mental health support at pharmacies” when they had obtained this support. The answers received were “explanations of prescription medication” (46.8%) and “explanations of over-the-counter drugs [OTC drugs and pharmacist intervention required drugs (yo-shido-iyakuhin)]” (31.2%) during the pharmacy’s main duties. Furthermore, in the survey of all 580 residents, the “initiatives that would be good to have in pharmacies to support mental health” were “mental health check” (31.2%), “explanations of prescription medication” (30.2%). Moreover, regardless of whether there were difficulties with mental health, the reasons given by the 55 people who answered that pharmacies should not be involved in mental health were “mental health is-difficult as a specialty” (52.7%) and “mental health is difficult in terms of personal information” (43.6%). Therefore, it is suggested that pharmacy pharmacists should initially provide “mental health support” at pharmacies for mental health areas that do not require specialist knowledge.
In a survey of 580 local residents, 80.3% reported no
experience of receiving “mental health support at pharmacies,” defined as
mental support through explanations of medications and illnesses and health
consultations. Among 55 residents who believed that pharmacies should not be
involved in mental health regardless of the level of expertise required,
“mental health is highly specialized and difficult” (52.7%) was cited as a
reason. These findings suggest that pharmacy pharmacists should provide mental health
support that does not require specialized expertise.