Search

With the hosting of the Tokyo Olympics, interest in anti-doping (AD) has increased, and at the same time, sports pharmacists (SPs) are expected to play active roles. However, despite the fact that it has been more than 10 years since the SP certification system was launched, the existence and roles of SPs are not well recognized by sports officials, and many SPs feel that there is no place or way for them to contribute. In my case, as a staff member of the federation, I have supported competitions as a referee and secretariat, so I have had opportunities to conduct AD activities such as seminars for athletes and coaches, and to respond to inquiries. Also, in my work as a hospital pharmacist, I have had opportunities to respond to informal inquiries about AD measures from hospital staff. In both cases, I think it was very important to first make people aware of the existence of SPs.The current problem is that it is sometimes difficult for the federation's staff to respond promptly, which puts a burden on their normal work. Therefore, it is important to have pharmacists who are close to the athletes and can provide health consultations on a daily basis in order to share correct information, educate them about AD measures, and help manage their health.

Anti-doping (AD) education for athletes is mainly one-way and through passively attended lectures. As such, learning about prohibited substances and highly technical doping rules is often difficult for athletes. Therefore, having athletes passively attending lectures is not enough to prevent unintentional doping violations caused by medicines and supplements. Therefore, it is important for athletes to acquire knowledge about individual prohibited substances as well as active learning and practical knowledge about AD measures. "Doping Guardian" is an educational card game that has been developed to help prevent unintentional doping violations. Participants (pharmacists) of this game can learn how to use medicines and supplements from an AD perspective while simulating the life of an athlete. This presentation will provide an overview of this card game and how it has been used to date.

In this study, we conducted a survey and interviews of young athletes to clarify the actual conditions of medication use and nutritional management (supplement use, etc.) with the aim of enhancing their health support. In addition, a second questionnaire was conducted for pharmacists working at medical institutions to clarify the actual situation of anti-doping (AD) activities by pharmacists, and examined the issues they face to support the health of athletes in the future. The results of the athletes' surveys revealed that the roles of pharmacists in AD activities was not recognized by athletes. In particular, the dissemination of AD education by pharmacists is considered to be critical. In future AD education, it will be necessary not only to provide knowledge of prohibited drugs, but also to provide self-medication support tailored to the individual needs of athletes, such as knowledge of nutrition and health. The results of the pharmacist survey revealed that athletes are treated by pharmacists on a daily basis, but for pharmacists, there are difficulties regarding how to provide information on AD, and it is necessary to enhance AD education at schools of pharmacy as well as in lifelong education seminars. Considering the pharmacists' AD activities as part of health support for athletes, it is considered more effective to collaborate with other health professionals such as sports doctors or nutritionists because it requires a wide range of knowledge such as nutrition.

Motor contagions are implicit effects of observed actions performed by another individual on one's own actions. There are two types of motor contagions. First, action-imitative contagions are induced simply by action observation and cause one's action to become similar to the observed action. Second, prediction error-induced contagions are induced only when the observation is accompanied by prediction errors- differences between the actions one observes and those he/she predicts. The change in his or her action depends on the prediction error. Based on the review of these two types of motor contagions in the literature, including the author's own studies, this article will further discuss possible neural mechanisms underlying them and how these motor contagions implicitly affect athletes during performance.