Objective: From the viewpoint of drug cost reduction, many generic drugs have appeared in the eye drops market.  Although the price of eye drops is defined on a per bottle (or per mL) basis, the difference in the total number of drops per bottle between the original drug and its generic drug may alter the drug cost reduction effect greatly.  Moreover, the difference in the total number of drops per bottle may also affect the number of pharmacy visits made by a patient in one year.
Methods: The total number of drops per bottle of an original drug and a generic drug was computed, and the influence of the number of drops on the drug cost reduction effect, including drug cost, was evaluated.
Results: Distinct differences in the volume per drop and the total number of drops per bottle were observed between the original drug and its generic drug, and those differences were found to clearly influence the drug cost reduction effect.  Moreover, in a survey of patients who shifted to generic eye drops, there were some patients who returned to the original eye drops because they could not apply the generic eye drops with ease or their eyes started to smart after using the generic eye drops.
Conclusion: This study revealed the need to take into consideration patient’s ease of use and the drug cost reduction effect, in the selection of eye drops.

In The 63rd Annual Congress of JSAM (Ehime 2014), the Committee for Safe Acupuncture of Research Department in the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (JSAM) conducted a workshop entitled "The Regional Anatomy Q&A for safety needling"which provided information on organ damage and neurological injuries that may occur after acupuncture treatments. This workshop stated the need for improvements in safe practices of acupuncture.
This workshop was divided into three parts:(1) results of questionnaire surveys conducted in Japan for acupuncturists on their clinical experience of adverse events and for orthopaedic doctors on their clinical experience of patients who suffered adverse events after acupuncture treatment;(2) a literature search of severe adverse events e.g., pneumothorax and neurological injuries, associated with acupuncture treatment in Japan;(3) the regional anatomy of the upper part of the body, which is based on several anatomical studies on acupoints.
The incidence of severe adverse events is considered to be very low during all acupuncture treatments;however, the real incidence is estimated to be higher than the number of case reports in the literature. In order to prevent severe adverse events, regional anatomical knowledge of needling points is very important, and furthermore, safe needling techniques are required.
We hope that this workshop can aid in enhancing the knowledge and techniques and contribute to safe practices of acupuncture.

Loss of muscle strength is not only associated with loss of muscle mass, but also affected by neural factors. It is well known that facilitatory and inhibitory responses of spinal motor neurons occur with cutaneous stimulation via spinal interneurons. The purpose of this study was to examine the neural adaptations associated with low load resistance training utilizing skin cooling (SC). 10 men trained both legs and each side was randomly assigned to SC training (SC-T) and non SC training (NSC-T). Subjects performed 30 isometric ankle dorsiflexion repetitions at 35% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) 3 times weekly for 6 weeks. The skin cooling condition was defined as when skin temperature was 25°C while repetitive resistance training was being performed. Dorsiflexor MVC significantly increased in both SC-T (n = 9) and NSC-T (n = 9) by 12.8 and 3.8%, respectively. A significant increase in root mean square of EMG (rmsEMG) was observed for 30 isometric ankle dorsiflexion repetitions in SC-T both pre- and post-training. Lower leg girths did not significantly increase post-training. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that muscle strength might increase via changes in neural activation and that SC-T may lead to greater increases in muscle strength compared with NSC-T because of improved muscle activation during resistance training with SC. Therefore, we suggest that low load resistance training with SC is an effective method to increase muscle strength.

Objective: Recently, special features on “dangerous” prescription drugs have been frequently published in few mass media platforms, such as weekly magazines. However, to our knowledge, there have been no prior studies, systematically organizing and evaluating the contents of these articles (e.g., drugs and their side effects that are reported). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relevance of the information on “dangerous drugs” that was published in weekly magazines using the modified “Media Doctor” instrument.Methods: We extracted articles on “dangerous” prescription drugs from 10 weekly magazines for which the table of contents of previous issues are available on their official websites. Information regarding the target drugs and their classifications was compiled and organized. The relevance of the extracted news articles was assessed by two independent evaluators. The evaluation index was based on the modified “Media Doctor” instrument, and 9 evaluation criteria were used to assign the following categories: satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or not applicable.Results: A total of 1,064 articles were screened, and 19 articles were selected for further evaluation. A total of 179 drugs (belonging to 34 drug classes) were listed. The most frequently mentioned class of drugs included hypnotics and sedatives, and the most frequently listed was triazolam. Of the 19 articles, 11 had zero items that were judged satisfactory by both the evaluators. The number of unsatisfactory items was widely distributed, but in 11 of the 19 articles, five and more items were judged unsatisfactory by both the evaluators.Conclusion: We revealed that a wide variety of drugs have been termed as “dangerous” by weekly magazines. Additionally, we found that these articles were inadequate and incomplete with respect to scientific validity, and that there are many aspects that require further improvement.

Objective: In our previous study, we revealed that articles on "dangerous drugs" in weekly magazines are inadequate and incomplete with respect to scientific validity, and that there may be many aspects that need to be improved. Next, the extent to which medical professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, received consultations by patients owing to such media reports and what countermeasures are implemented requires clarification. In the present study, as a first step, we performed a questionnaire survey of community pharmacists to clarify the occurrence of such consultations.Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among 698 community pharmacists. The survey was conducted over 10 days from December 8 to 17, 2021.Results: Out of the 698 community pharmacists, 545 responded (response rate: 78.1%). Of these, 323 (59.3%) had experienced consultations from patients owing to media reports on the dangers of drugs. Of the 323 respondents, 215 (66.6%) had experienced these consultations less than five times. In contrast, 83 respondents (25.7%) reported more than 10 such consultations. Of the 545 respondents, 190 (34.9%) responded that they routinely perform measures to deal with media reports on the dangers of drugs. The most common routine measure was the "regular checking of various media sources (including preparation of responses when receiving consultation requests)."Conclusion: Our results indicated that more than half of the community pharmacists had experienced receiving consultations from patients, although only approximately 30% were adopting routine measures. This suggests that community pharmacists have been affected to some extent by these media reports, and that further countermeasures need to be implemented.