The pitching motion requires neck, trunk and hip rotations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pitching injuries and dominant versus non-dominant differences of the ranges of these motions. The subjects were 66 high school baseball pitchers who received medical checkup during baseball classes in Kyoto prefecture. During medical checkup, physical therapists measured the ranges of neck/trunk rotations, and internal rotation of the bilateral hips. Then orthopaedic doctors did special tests such as shoulder internal impingement test, subacromial impingement test, elbow valgus stress test and elbow hyper extension test. Fourteen pitchers (21.2%) who were positive in one or more special tests were judged to require second screening (injured group). In normal group, average neck/trunk rotations toward the non-dominant side were significantly wider than rotations toward the dominant side. Average hip internal rotation was significantly wider on the non-dominant side than on the dominant side. In injured group, a larger number of pitchers had wider neck and trunk rotation ranges toward the dominant side than toward the non-dominant side, and had wide hip internal rotation range on the dominant side compared to the non-dominant side. Comparing the ranges of the neck/trunk rotations and hip internal rotation between dominant and non-dominant sides might be useful for the prediction of pitching injuries of the shoulder and the elbow.

Aim: We sought to compare the depression state of first-year residents, who were new to the system of clinical resident training, with those who had become completely familiar with the system.Method: A questionnaire-based survey on stress reaction was distributed to 250 resident training hospitals in Japan. The survey was taken by 1,753 first year residents who started postgraduate clinical training in 2011. The survey was given to the students once before the training and-again months after the training had started. The results were compared with those from a similar survey in 2004.Result: 3 months after the training had started, 30.5% of residents suffered from a depressive state. At that time, the prevalence of residents with newly developed symptoms of depression, who had no depressive state before the training, significantly decreased compared to those in 2004 (19.6 vs. 25.2%, p<0.001). The decrease of depressive state in 2011 may be due to the decrease of working hours, the improvement of stressor and stress-relieving factors.Discussion: Many residents still experienced a stress reaction. Further improvement of the training environment should be considered.

The questionnaire was distributed to caregivers regarding their management for home medication therapy. The purpose of this questionnaire was to clarify the role of community pharmacists in city “Z”, Hiroshima in supporting this activity. The results were compared among seven administrative zones. The percentage of caregivers who had routinely administered medications to dependent patients was 81%. Of these, the percentage of caregivers who had encountered difficulty in medication administration to dependent patients was 66%. Only 13% of these caregivers had sought assistance from pharmacists in dealing with issues they faced in the administration of medications. The percentage of caregivers who had easy access to pharmacists was 44%. The percentage of caregivers who received pharmacist-initiated information about patients was 23%. Among the 7 administrative zones in city “Z”, the 2 zones (H-zones) with the highest percentage of elderly citizens, 38.7%, were compared with the other 2 zones (L-zones) with the lowest percentage of elderly citizens, 25.7%, regarding medication management by caregivers. It was observed that the frequency of missing side effects or crushing medicines by caregivers was higher in H-zones as compared to L-zones. The results of this research suggest that close cooperation between pharmacists and caregivers improves the quality of medication therapy management. In an aging society, pharmacist intervention could be very beneficial to providing support and information that would improve the quality of patients’ medication therapy.

The questionnaire was distributed to caregivers regarding their management for home medication therapy. The purpose of this questionnaire was to clarify the role of community pharmacists in city “Z”, Hiroshima in supporting this activity. The results were compared among seven administrative zones. The percentage of caregivers who had routinely administered medications to dependent patients was 81%. Of these, the percentage of caregivers who had encountered difficulty in medication administration to dependent patients was 66%. Only 13% of these caregivers had sought assistance from pharmacists in dealing with issues they faced in the administration of medications. The percentage of caregivers who had easy access to pharmacists was 44%. The percentage of caregivers who received pharmacist-initiated information about patients was 23%. Among the 7 administrative zones in city “Z”, the 2 zones (H-zones) with the highest percentage of elderly citizens, 38.7%, were compared with the other 2 zones (L-zones) with the lowest percentage of elderly citizens, 25.7%, regarding medication management by caregivers. It was observed that the frequency of missing side effects or crushing medicines by caregivers was higher in H-zones as compared to L-zones. The results of this research suggest that close cooperation between pharmacists and caregivers improves the quality of medication therapy management. In an aging society, pharmacist intervention could be very beneficial to providing support and information that would improve the quality of patients’ medication therapy.