Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 5 Articles
Alcohol compromises judgement and makes people impulsive and likely to take risks. Alcohol also causes a loss of inhibition and increases aggressive behaviour and violent acts. Because increased alcohol consumption often occurs together with a depressed mood, this is a particular concern. Depression can lead to thoughts of suicide. The lack of self-control, compromised judgement and impulsivity from the alcohol can increase the chances of a person attempting suicide. Generally, a much higher incidence of suicide, both completed and attempted, is associated with alcohol. The common problems of depression and alcohol are frequently complicated by social problems. Alcohol can often lead to problems at work in the form of absenteeism, sickness and under performance. This article briefly describes prevalence, assessment, clinical features, and treatment of comorbid major depression and alcohol dependence. Comorbid is characterized by symptoms of both depression and anxiety. Patients who have comorbid depression and anxiety have higher severity of illness, higher chronicity and significantly greater impairment in work functioning, psychosocial functioning and quality of life than patients only suffering from single disease like depression or anxiety. comorbidity is associated with an increased rate of psychiatric hospitalization and suicide attempts. Alcohol dependence prolongs the course of depression, and persistent depression during abstinence from alcohol is a risk factor for relapse to heavy drinking. Thus, logic dictates that both disorders be identified and managed concurrently and aggressively. Integrated psychosocial outpatient treatment programs and the ability to treat alcohol and depression simultaneously have reinforced the need to revisit the traditional management of comorbid major depression and alcohol dependence more formally....
Proper prescribing is one of the important criteria among the rational drug use. The study of prescribing practices\r\nof physicians needs to supervise, appraise and recommended if necessary about prescribing practices so as to make the\r\nrational prescribing and cost effective. The main aim of the study was to describe the prescribing practice of physicians in\r\nKadapa, Andhra Pradesh. A prospective study was carried out over 2 months, September - October 2013 in out-patient\r\ndepartments of private clinics and hospitals in Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Prescriptions were collected during the\r\nstudy period from the patients (508) attending community pharmacies near to the private clinics and hospitals taken for the\r\nstudy. Total 508 prescriptions were collected during the study period. The average number of drugs per prescription was\r\nfound to be 5. In our study, most of the drugs were prescribed in brand names (74.3%) while less number of drugs prescribed\r\nin generic names. It was observed that the usage of antibiotics was less in the present study as compared to similar studies\r\ndone in India. The findings of this study indicate that the average number of drugs per prescription was significantly higher\r\nthan recommended by world health organization. Irrational prescribing can be avoided by sticking to the ideal prescription\r\nwriting. This study indicates considerable scope for improving the prescribing practices in medical out-patient departments....
In the modern era of medicine practice the use of imaging techniques has played an outstanding role as diagnosing tool, specially X-ray and CT scan techniques. We have reached to new heights of quality in imaging, but at the same time, we have dramatically increased the radiation dose to the patients. This is unnecessary and need to take charge and demonstrate that radiology expertise is essential to safe imaging. As data obtained from US FDA about half of the scans are done unnecessary. It has been a hot topic of debate during last decade, due to its deleterious effects observed in pediatric and pregnant patients. This fact has to be taken into account while using ionising radiation sources in diagnosis. It was found that excessive exposure to such radiation cause childhood cancer, and greatly discussed in media and scientific committees all over the world. This article presents current rules and governing bodies of various countries and organizations working on reducing the unanticipated effects of imaging techniques....
Antibiotics are the most frequently prescribed medications in modern medicine; they cure disease by killing or injuring microbes. Currently, over 100 different antibiotics are available to cure minor, as well as life-threatening infections. Due to high consumption of these, antibiotic administration should follow guidelines laid down under the caption rational use of antibiotics. According to WHO the rational use of drugs is use of right drug, right dosage at right cost. In many studies, it was observed that a considerable proportion of antibiotic prescribing is sub-optimal. Common errors include use of an agent with an inappropriate spectrum, administration of an antibiotic when there is little evidence of bacterial infection, unnecessarily prolonged courses and overuse of intravenous agents and results increase in avoidable side effects for the patient, expense for the funding body and resistance to antibiotics for the community as a whole. In developing countries, the proportion of patients treated according to clinical guidelines for common diseases in primary care is less than 40% in the public sector and 30% in the private sector. The inappropriate use of antibiotics is more important factor considered in developing countries because of freer marketing of antibiotics and higher frequency of specific infectious diseases. In spite of this fact, there are not many studies dealing with the use of antibiotics. This paper presents a literature review on the monitoring of antibiotics use....
In India, Tuberculosis (TB) became a major public-health problem having the maximum number of incident and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB cases. Chemotherapy of current tuberculosis (TB) is based on a combination of various drugs that were developed generally in the central decades of the previous century. Drug sensitive strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. TB) shows high cure rates, When the recommended compound and lengthy treatment protocols are adhered to. In this article the various TB tests are used to predict the severity of disease. This article highlights problems related to the optimized use of existing potent drugs, challenges related to the development of novel, potent and improved products, focusing on inherent in TB drug clinical development....
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