Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2010 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 8 Articles
The word ââ?¬Ë?euthanasiaââ?¬â?¢ triggers a spate of controversy world wide redefining the meaning attributed to it and the context and the extent to which it could be legally practicable.The debate raises a plethora of issues. While some oppose it, some are equally in favor. The concept of euthanasia strikes at the very root of human existence by allowing the right to end life. Like any other issue, euthanasia too has two sides. The current article explores the whole gamut of contentions regarding the subject....
One of the greatest public health problems nowadays is the increased occurrence of obesity. Over the last 30 years, obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide with more than 1.6 billion adults overweight and 400 million of them are clinically obese. Numbers will increase to 2.3 billion overweight and 700 million obese adults by 2015 as WHO predicts.Holistic uses of these herbs certainly help to manage obesity without any side effects and end prevalence of obesity in Gulf region....
Self-medication and non-doctor prescribing of drugs is common in developing countries. The objectives of this research were to explore lay medication activities as an aspect of self-managed health care to identify socio-medical characteristics and to establish the prevalence, attitude knowledge, and sources of information of self-medication in Indore city. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the extent and pattern of self-medication. Data were collected from a random sample of 135 pharmacists from various pharmacies in city following WHO methods. The prevalence of self-medication was estimated. Respondents were questioned about the, self-treated symptomatic conditions, recent medication activities, the use of prescribed medicine in self-treated illness episodes, and the use of suitable dosage forms. The prevalence of self-medication in Indore city is high. This study contributes to a growing body of international evidence that has demonstrated that self-medication is a vital part of daily self-care behavior. Patient education and awareness campaigns are necessary to promote the role of the pharmacist in India, particularly because in modern society the pharmacist plays an active role in the provision of drug information. Strict policies need to be implemented on the advertising and selling of medications to prevent this problem from escalating....
This study focuses with the objective of, determining the proportion of men and women illnesses receiving antihypertensive, studying the prescription pattern for the above illnesses in a primary care setting and determining the factors related to antihypertensive prescription pattern. The study aimed to describe the prevalence of antihypertensive agent use in hospitalized patients. This was a prospective study for a period of three months (Jan, 2010 to Mar, 2010). Data were collected by reviewing medical charts of all patients. All the patients receiving antihypertensive agent were identified and included in the study. Patient information was obtained on a specially designed patient profile form. The documented cases were analyzed to assess the prescribing pattern of antihypertensive and compared with the developed criteria with respect to indication, dose, frequency, route of administration, duration of therapy and potential drug interaction. This study revealed that most of the patients were on combination therapy (58.88 %). In the monotherapy category, six classes of drugs were used. These were calcium channel blockers (40.38 %), beta-blockers (18.26 %), ACE inhibitors/ angiotensin antagonist (25.96 %), other adrenergic blocker (1.92 %), vasodilator (2.88 %) and diuretics (10.57 %). Among monotherapy drugs, calcium channel blockers were prescribed most whereas other adrenergic blocker were least used. This study has shown that antihypertensive prescription rates can be derived from analysis of regional drug and resident databases. High antihypertensive usage is shown in the obese population of Kanpur, similar to that observed in other regions of Northern India. Beta Blockers class of antihypertensive are predominantly prescribed. Diagnostic and therapeutic guides and protocols on hypertension treatment were available at the time of the study, and the drugs of choice and appropriate single-drug and multi-drug regimens were well recognized....
Objective: To analyze the percent of diabetic patients receiving appropriate diagnostic and screening services in the United States. Introduction: The American Diabetes Association (ADA) provides diabetes care standards and guidelines for managing diabetics. These are intended to provide clinicians, patients, researchers, payors, and other interested individuals with the components of diabetes care, treatment goals, and tools to evaluate the quality of care. Research Design and Methods: The study used data from the household component (HC) of the 2006 MEPS, a survey sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Standards of Care measures were captured using the The Diabetes Care Survey. Results: Less than 70% of diabetics were screened annually for foot exam, eye exam. Only 59% of diabetics had a flu vaccination. Conclusion: There is much scope of improve the provision of screening and diagnostic services in diabetic patients....
The 42nd world health assembly (WHA) noted that Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a significant public health concern and the problem is growing especially in the developing countries. Recognizing that the disease is chronic debilitating, costly and leads to severe complications, the WHA invited member countries to formulate preventive measures and guidelines for control programs. Both genetic and environment (external) factors are important in the development of type II DM. The external factors are modifiable and there is evidence that correction of these factors can bring down the risk of type II diabetes by up to 91%. Thus it would be important and worthwhile to determine the role of the various risk factors in the causation of type II diabetes so that appropriate local risk factor interventions can be planned....
Biological weapons have been of interest for centuries and have been utilized in numerous battles. Recent advances in molecular biology have allowed successful manipulation of bacteria and viruses to provide resistance to conventional treatments. Large stockpiles of such altered bio-weapons now exist and are available for terrorist use. Biological attacks from terrorist groups pose a serious risk to both civilians and members of the armed forces. Biological weapons can cause fatalities to a far greater extent than chemical weapons, are inexpensive to manufacture, can be used over large distances with ease, and can be delivered in a variety of ways, such as bombs, missiles, and sprays. The release of a biological weapon would endanger the emergency medical personnel who were the first to respond and rapidly spread throughout the general public....
This study was carried out to obtain information of self medication use in Nagpur City, Central India. Semi-structured questionnaire was used for collecting data for this study. NSAIDs like analgesic and antipyretic were the most commonly used drug for self medication (46.73 %). Second most common self medications used in Nagpur City, Central India were the drugs like antiemetics, antacids and antispasmodic for relief of gastrointestinal symptoms (23.46 %). Cough syrup, antihistaminic, decongestants were used as self medication by 12.44 %. Total ADR developed to self medication were 13.88 %. Cough syrups, antihistaminics, decongestants were observed to cause more number of ADRs (44.26 %).Symptoms/ diagnosis for self medication use in Nagpur City were fever, headache, musculoskeletal disease, common cold, acute peptic disease, urticaria, hyperytension, gastritis, motion sickness, diarrhea, pharyngitis, cough. Previous prescription of doctors, pharmacist, neighbor and advertisement were the common source of information of drug for self medication. Pharmacists can play key role in good self medication practice by providing information about the ADRs and warning symptoms for medical help....
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