Potentially inappropriate prescribing and cost outcomes for older people: a national population study. (1/147)

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Frequency of inappropriate drugs in primary care: analysis of a sample of immobile patients who received periodic home visits. (2/147)

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Potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly: the PRISCUS list. (3/147)

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Stop Delirium! A complex intervention to prevent delirium in care homes: a mixed-methods feasibility study. (4/147)

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Prescription drug misuse. (5/147)

BACKGROUND: Recognising and dealing with patients who seek drugs for nonmedical purposes can be a difficult problem in general practice. 'Prescription shoppers' and patients with chronic nonmalignant pain problems are the main people who constitute this small but problematic group. The main drugs they seek are benzodiazepines and opioids. OBJECTIVE: To provide data on current trends in prescription drug abuse and to discuss different strategies on how to deal with this issue in the clinic setting. DISCUSSION: Misuse of prescription drugs can take the form of injecting oral drugs, selling them on the street, or simply overusing the prescribed amount so that patients run short before the due date and then request extra prescriptions from the doctor. Currently oxycontin and alprazolam are the most abused drugs in Australia. Adequate prescription monitoring mechanisms at the systems level are lacking so we need to rely on our clinical skills and the patient's behaviour pattern over time to detect problematic prescription drug misuse. Management strategies may include saying 'no' to patients, having a treatment plan, and adopting a universal precaution approach toward all patients prescribed drugs of addiction. Among patients with chronic nonmalignant pain, requests for increasing opioid doses need careful assessment to elucidate any nonmedical factors that may be at play.  (+info)

Time to wake up the patients in the ICU: a crazy idea or common sense? (6/147)

With the first generation of ventilators, it was often necessary to sedate patients to avoid dyssynchrony between patient and ventilator. The standard treatment of patients in need of mechanical ventilation has therefore traditionally included sedation. Modern ventilators are able to simulate the patients breathing efforts to a higher degree, and therefore, deep sedation is no longer necessary. In the last decade, support has grown for a reduction in the use of sedation. The focus has been placed on the correlation between the depth of sedation and the length of mechanical ventilation. It has been shown that a daily wake up trial reduced the time that patients were dependent on mechanical ventilation. Additionally, it has been shown that combining both a spontaneous breathing trial and a daily wake up trial reduced the mechanical ventilation time compared to a spontaneous breathing trial alone. We have recently shown in a randomized study that the use of no sedation, compared to the standard treatment with sedation and a daily wake up trial, reduced the time that patients required mechanical ventilation, the length of the patients' stay in the intensive care unit, and the total length of the hospital stay. All evidence indicates that the use of sedative drugs should be reduced, patients should be mobilized, and each patient's needs should be evaluated on a daily basis to optimize the care of each individual patient.  (+info)

Appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy: a multicentre prevalence survey in the Netherlands, 2008-2009. (7/147)

A survey was carried out to determine the prevalence and appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy (AMT) in the Netherlands and to identify determinants for inappropriate AMT. Prevalence surveys of patients hospitalised in the Netherlands were performed three times in 2008 and 2009. Patients' demographic, infection-related and AMT-related data were collected from hospital wards. A total of 19 hospitals participated, consisting of a mix of university, teaching and general hospitals, which were distributed evenly across the country. The appropriateness of AMT was assessed using a standardised algorithm based on local AMT prescription guidelines. A total of 7,853 patients were included, of which 2,327 (29.6%) patients were on AMT (range: 20.8-39.5%). In 372 patients (16% of patients on AMT), treatment was considered inappropriate. In 265 (11.4%) patients on AMT, appropriateness of treatment was not judged because of insufficient information. The percentage of patients without a judgment varied considerably between the participating hospitals (range: 1.3-36.2%). Appropriate AMT use was significantly associated with a patient being in an intensive care unit, having a central venous catheter and being given beta-lactamase-sensitive penicillins. The use of fluoroquinolones was significantly associated with more frequent inappropriate use. There was considerable and significant variation between the participating hospitals in the amount of antimicrobials prescribed and the appropriateness of their use. To improve the completeness and reliability of such surveys, there is a need for intensive training of observers and medical staff in recording information.  (+info)

Correlates of (inappropriate) benzodiazepine use: the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). (8/147)

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