Social Pharmacy: Usefulness and Applications of the Social and Behavioral Sciences in Pharmaceutical Care

Abstract

It is known that psychosocial factors impact human behavior. In Pharmacotherapy, the outcome analysis should not be exclusively performed in pharmacological terms because other determinant factors could be missed. A description of Social Pharmacy defined as the discipline which studies the role of medicines from a socio-behavioral perspective is presented. A review of the changes experienced by the profession is presented as well with an emphasis on the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Care concepts as triggers of such changes. At the end, the initiatives that Universidad Latina has implemented to foster this discipline and the potential role that it has for the Pharmacy’s future are analyzed.