Abstract
Social Pharmacy (SP) is a multidisciplinary field to promote the adequate use of medicine. The field of SP is increasingly important due to a numbers of new trends all posing challenges to society. The SP group at the University of Copenhagen has for several years used a broad approach to SP teaching and research, often illustrated by the four levels: individual, group, organizational, and societal. In this paper the relevance of maintaining a broad approach to SP research is argued for and examples of the importance of such type of research is presented.
Highlights
Overall, social pharmacy (SP) can be said to promote the adequate use of medicine
A study of regional differences in the prescription of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication for children showed that children of socially disadvantaged parents were more frequently prescribed ADHD medication in regions with high prescription rates [3]
We believe that working on different levels and over many disciplines is necessary to obtain a fuller and more nuanced picture of the role of medicines in society
Summary
Social pharmacy (SP) can be said to promote the adequate use of medicine. SP is a multidisciplinary field that applies social, humanistic and natural sciences—covering areas such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, economics, epidemiology, health, and medicine—to pharmaceuticals and related areas. The field of SP is increasingly important due to developments like new expensive medicines, unequal access to medicines worldwide, the strive for shared decision making, increased self-care in the developed world, the changing role of pharmacies and pharmacists in society, and the increasing use of medicines in developed countries and emerging markets. All of these factors pose new challenges to society, and SP can be part of highlighting, problematizing, putting into perspective and solving problems connected to these challenges. This paper can be used as a starting point to discuss how to best promote SP research and in the future
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