DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORAL-SCIENCE CURRICULA AND FACULTY IN PHARMACY -SOME ISSUES REQUIRING ATTENTION

The purpose of this paper is to summarize advances in behavioral resea rch related to drug therapy and assess the development of behavioral s cience curricula and faculty in pharmacy schools. Procedures include a Medline search of articles on patient compliance and quality of life, a review of behavioral science and communication courses in the AACP Curriculum Database, and analysis of the AACP Roster of Faculty and Pr ofessional Staff. Findings indicate a dramatic increase in research ov er the past 20 years and some progress in the development of behaviora l science curricula and faculty. However, there is wide variability in curriculum development and faculty availability across pharmacy schoo ls, and a number of schools still do not have any full-time teachers i n the social or administrative sciences. Some changes that might facil itate the development of behavioral science curricula and faculty are proposed.