Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2019 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 6 Articles
Medicines are important for treating diseases and they are responsible for improving the population's quality of life. People may well continue to use OTC medicines extensively and inappropriately to mask severe symptoms and maintain function in their daily lives. Indiscriminate use of OTC medicines might cause health risks and abuse of these medications is a national issue. This was a prospective observational study which was carried out for a period of six months in selected rural areas of Chitradurga. The study was initiated after receiving approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Selection of subjects is based on random sampling method in which the subjects of different rural areas are included. Informed consent form will be provided to subjects with a brief explanation about study and its importance in local language. A self-designed data collection form with a self-designed questionnaire is provided to obtain patient details. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Paired t-test was used for statistical significance. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. A total of 103 subjects were enrolled in the study from selected 3 rural areas. Selection of subjects is on the basis of randomized sampling. Out of 103 subjects 49(47.5%) were males and 54(52.5%) were females. Of this, 56(54.2%) were working and 47(45.8%) were non-working. Analgesic OTC usage pattern was common issue in literates as well as illiterates, the patterns of usage of these medications were observed to be more in workers than non-workers. 7 subjects having hangover who used single drug for their pain management. There is no relation between sleep and hangover with alcohol intake. But the hangover is due to only medicine (Analgesic) intake. 4 subjects associated with CV problems which may be attributed either to NSAID usage or other conditions. The study concludes that workers are more prone to use analgesic OTC medications. Even though there is an option of home remedy subjects are still relaying directly on medications. Cardiovascular risks associated with NSAID medications have observed but there is no clear evidence....
Many hospitals face barriers in the implementation of TDM services, this study aimed\nto evaluate a pharmacist-led TDM service to optimize patientsâ?? outcomes. Adult patients who\nwere administered vancomycin, gentamicin, or amikacin were included. The pre-phase included a\nretrospective assessment of patients and the intervention phase consisted of an educational program.\nThe post-phase assessed patients based on TDM services provided by inpatient pharmacists on a\n24-h, 7-day basis for 3 months. The primary outcome was to assess the mean difference in proportion\nof correct initial doses of prescribing orders. Secondary outcomes included assessing the mean\ndifferences in proportions of correct dose adjustments and correct drug sampling time. Seventy-five\npatients in each phase were eligible. Patients who received optimal initial dosing in the post-phase\nshowed a higher statistical significance, mean difference of 0.31, [95% CI (0.181-0.4438), p < 0.0001].\nPatients in the post-phase received more optimal dose adjustments, mean difference of 0.1, [95% CI\n(-0.560-0.260), p = 0.2113]. Drug levels were ordered more correctly in the post-phase, mean\ndifference of 0.03, [95% CI (-0.129-0.189), p = 0.7110]. This study demonstrated the important role of\nTDM services led by pharmacists in optimizing the initial dosing for these antibiotics....
From the patient perspective, medicine burden is more than the number of medicines, or\nthe complexity of medicine regimens they need to manage. Relationships between the number of\nmedicines, regimen complexity and patient perception of medicine burden are under-researched.\nThis cross-sectional study measured regimen complexity and determined how this and patient\nperceived burden are affected by the therapeutic group. Regimen complexity was measured in\npatients presenting prescriptions to six community pharmacies in South-East England. A sub-sample\n(166) also completed the Living with Medicines Questionnaire which measures patient perceived\nburden. The 492 patients were prescribed 2700 medicines (range 1 to 23). Almost half used at least one\nnon-oral formulation. Complexity was correlated strongly with the number of medicines (r= 0.94),\nnumber of therapeutic groups (r= 0.84) and number of formulations (r= 0.73). Patients using\nmedicines for skin, eye and respiratory conditions had the highest complexity scores. Increasing the\nnumber of medicines, frequency of dosing, number of non-oral formulations and number of different\ntherapeutic groups all increased medicine burden. Although cardiovascular medicines were the most\ncommon medicines used by the majority of patients (60%), those for neurological, psychiatric and\ngastro-intestinal conditions were most strongly associated with high burden. Studies are required\nto determine medicine burden in different conditions, especially neurological conditions, including\nchronic pain....
The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of pharmacist-provided\nrecommendations to general practitioners (GPs) of patients living in assisted living facilities (ALFs).\nA secondary objective of this study was to explore prescriber and ALF staff perceptions. This was a\nmixed-method, quasi experimental 1-group pre/post-test study with an explanatory qualitative arm\nusing in-depth semi-structured interviews at five regional ALFs and one independent community\npharmacy in East Tennessee. Residents older than 65 years of age, with confirmed diagnosis of Type\nII diabetes in the pharmacyâ??s medical record, taking anti-diabetic medication for at least 14 days and\nresident of affiliated ALF for at least past 30 days were enrolled. Phase 1 demonstrated a 35.1%\n(13/37 recommendations) acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations. Phase 2 demonstrated a\nsimilar 31.3% acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations (5/16 recommendations). The mean\npre-post difference in average 30-day FBG was greater in the accepted group than the rejected\nrecommendation group (-9.1 vs. -2.3 mg/dL). Pharmacist-GP collaboration in the ALF population\nwas feasible and may improve the quality of patient care of these residents....
Pharmacogenetic (PGx) guidelines for the precise dosing and selection of drugs remain\npoorly implemented in current clinical practice. Among the barriers to the implementation process\nis the lack of clinical decision support system (CDSS) tools to aid health providers in managing\nPGx information in the clinical context. The present study aimed to describe the first Italian\nendeavor to develop a PGx CDSS, called FARMAPRICE. FARMAPRICE prototype was conceived\nfor integration of patient molecular data into the clinical prescription process in the Italian Centro\ndi Riferimento Oncologico (CRO)-Aviano Hospital. It was developed through a coordinated\npartnership between two high-tech companies active in the computerization of the Italian\nhealthcare system. Introducing FARMAPRICE into the clinical setting can aid physicians in\nprescribing the most efficacious and cost-effective pharmacological therapy available....
Objective. To investigate the feasibility and safety of higher-dose dexmedetomidine in ophthalmological outpatient examination of\nchildren with cataract. Methods. 100 cases of children were recruited in the study and randomly equally divided into two groups.\nOne group was given 2 microg/kg intranasal dexmedetomidine anesthesia, while the other group was under 3 microg/kg. The dosage of\ndexmedetomidine was calculated by the same anesthesiologist according to the weight of patient. After sufficient sedation, the\nsame ophthalmologist performed ocular examinations manually, including intraocular pressure, keratometry, axial length, and\ncorneal thickness and recorded the ocular position score during intraocular pressure measurement and corneal thickness\nmeasurement. Other variables were sedation onset time, recovery time, vital signs, and side effects. Results. In intraocular pressure\nmeasurement, only one case in the 2 microg/kg group did not complete the examination, while all cases in the 3 microg/kg group completed\nthe examination and the difference of the success rate between the two groups was nonsignificant (P > 0.05). The success rates of\nthe 3 microg/kg group in corneal curvature, axial length, and corneal thickness examination were 96%, 92%, and 86%, respectively,\nwhich were significantly higher than those of the 2 microg/kg group (22%, 18%, and 4%).Theaverage onset time of sedation in the 3 microg/\nkg group was...................
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