著者

藤田(濱邊) 和歌子 赤井 那実香 徳山 尚吾

出版者

Japanese Society of Drug Informatics

雑誌

医薬品情報学 (ISSN:13451464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.3, pp.149-155, 2010-02-28 (Released:2010-08-10)

参考文献数

20

被引用文献数

2

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Objective: It is well known that opioids are the dominant medication for the palliative care of cancer pain.  Although the enhancement of palliative care has been shown as the social issue in Japan, our opioid consumption is 1/7-7/8 of its global average.  These actual conditions of “low consumption of opioid” may affect the enrichment of palliative care in Japan.  In this study, we performed attitude surveys on the current situation of opioid usage for the palliative care in Japan by questionnaire method intended for hospital pharmacists.  Design and Methods: The questionnaire was mailed to pharmacists in randomly selected 100 hospitals among the general clinics involved in palliative care (October 10-16, 2006).  The collection rate was 63% (63 person/100 hospitals).  Results: About 94% of respondents recognized that the palliative care is poor in Japan, of which about 78% considered that there are relationship between the amount of opioid usage and enrichment of palliative care.  Furthermore, the problem of medical staff was considered as the most important factor contributing to the current status of palliative care in Japan.  In addition, in the order, legal barrier (8%)>problems in regard to patients (7%)>problems in regard to medical agents are considered to affect the current status of palliative care in Japan.  Specifically, it is considered that some problems such as deficiency of education (57%), deficiency of number of specialized staff (21%), and lack of experience of opioid usage (10%) or viased view of opioid (5%) are included in the problems of medical staff in Japan.  Conclusions: As the specific issue to achieve advanced palliative care and to improve quality of life in cancer patients, the improvement of curriculum and the training of medical staff for clinical opioid usage in the palliative care seems to be the most important in Japan.  In addition, the improvement of information provision by pharmacists toward the medical staff may be important for the promotion of palliative care using opioid in the future in Japan.