GPs' beliefs about patients influences treatment
General practitioners' beliefs and attitudes towards patients with chronic fatigue syndrome may be a barrier to effective treatment, finds new research available on .... ...Researchers analysed group discussions between 46 general practitioners in England, based on a series of clinical scenarios involving patients with chronic fatigue syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome. ... ...The participants...Training GPs to manage obesity does not affect weight loss
The usefulness of providing training in obesity management to general practice teams is questioned by researchers in this week's BMJ....... Moore and colleagues evaluated the impact of a training programme intended to improve the management of obesity. The study involved 44 general practices (22 completed the training and 22 acted as controls) and 843 obese adult patients. Control practices were...Women prefer GPs to the Internet when trying to find out about HRT
'HRT "doubles breast cancer risk"' ...'"Don't panic" over HRT research' ...Recent media reports are littered with headlines such as these. What impact are such headlines likely to have on women considering, or currently taking, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and where will they turn for further information and advice? ... ...A study jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (...GPs need more training to help patients with depression
General practitioners may require more extensive training and support to acquire skills to help patients with depression, finds a study in this weeks BMJ.... ...Researchers recruited 84 general practitioners and 272 of their patients with anxiety or depression. Half the doctors received basic training in brief cognitive (mental) behaviour therapy and half provided their usual care.... ...After si...GPs prescribe significant numbers of "off label" drugs to children
. . PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately we are unable to post the PDF link to this paper. If you require the full research paper, we can fax it to you. Please telephone or e-mail Emma Wilkinson on +44-20-7383-6529, or .Email: . General practitioners are prescribing significant numbers of drugs to children that are outside the terms of the product license - "off label" - finds research in the Archives.... ... Open access follow-up for patients with stable inflammatory bowel disease delivers the same quality of care as routine outpatient appointments, is preferred by patients and general practitioners and would save the average consultant in gastroenterology 25 - 50 outpatient visits per year. This is the conclusion of a two-year long randomised trial and cost effectiveness study conducted by J...Patient complaints may be harmful to GPs' health and practice
. . . General practitioners (GPs) find patients' complaints stressful and the increase in their number is leading to more defensive clinical practice, say researchers in this week's BMJ. Dr Ashok Jain and Dr Jane Ogden from Kings College, London report the findings of their qualitative study of 30 GPS from South East London who had had complaints made against them. . They found that the doctor.... . The general practitioners of the future will be "..highly skilled medical generalists and information specialists and the only essential doctors at the whole of healthcare practice" writes Dr Toby Lipman in this week's BMJ. Commenting on recent claims that the role of the general practitioner in the future will become redundant, Dr Lipman writes that "...the exponential growth of informatio...