Costs of antidepressants could have funded effective alternatives
...l treatment and therapists. Between 1991 and 2002, prescriptions per head for all antidepressants increased almost three-fold and the total cost (adjusted for inflation) increased by 310m. These costs could have been used to deliver cognitive behaviour therapy to 1.54 million patients, more than a third of the adu...Women less likely to get quality heart attack care
...y effort were more likely to receive pre-discharge prescriptions for all four classes of recommended heart medications than were women. The quality effort significantly improved the use of only two of the drugs beta blockers and aspirin -- in women. Jani is a former ACC intern and research assistant with the GAP ......try systems were designed to transform paper-based prescriptions into computerized orders sent directly the hospital's pharmacy. Since then, published studies have credited CPOE systems with reducing medication errors by as much as 81%, notes Koppel, principal investigator of this landmark study. However, while...Elderly receiving inappropriate prescriptions from their doctor's office
...ported information from medical offices shows that prescriptions of these medications for elderly people has not decreased. "The use of potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly continues to be pervasive throughout the United States despite more than a decade of research and media coverage of this issu...Insurance incentives might help smokers quit, study says
...alth care providers for increasing their number of prescriptions may contradict their policy," she suggests. Some health care system managers have suggested that "removing financial barriers to treatment would lead to less motivated smokers using treatment services, such that quit rates would go down," according t...Vioxx went mostly to patients who didn't need it, Stanford researcher says
...risk of gastrointestinal bleeding ended up getting prescriptions for Vioxx, Celebrex and other medicines in their class, known as COX-2 inhibitors. The overuse of these drugs is documented in a study published in the Jan. 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine by Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate profess...Study shows drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex were widely over-used long before recent problems
...tising. The researchers wondered how many of these prescriptions were going to patients who were not likely to bene...Then they looked at the use of NSAIDs versus COX-2 prescriptions and compared them to treatment guidelines that stratify patients into different treatment groups bas...Program effective at reducing depression in teens
...outh antidepressant use and primary care clinician prescriptions for antidepressant medications in the past decade, our results indicate that when both psychotherapy and medication were available options within primary care, psychotherapy (the more difficult option) was generally preferred," they add. "In conclusi...Georgia Medicaid program saves $20 million by controlling use of anti-ulcer drugs
...quiring enrollees to get permission before filling prescriptions for anti-ulcer medications called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). The savings were reported in a study published today in the American Journal of Managed Care by researchers at Express Scripts, the pharmacy benefit manager serving the Georgia Medicaid...Study identifies predictors of HIV drug resistance in patients beginning triple therapy
... into groups according to what percentage of their prescriptions they filled, 0-20 percent, 20-40 percent, 40-60 percent, 60-80 percent, 80-90 percent, 90-95 percent and 95 percent or more. Patients who missed less than five percent of their medications did not develop resistance over the course of the study. "Tho...RelayHealth selected by Columbia University to link doctors and patients online
...are also automatically notified when their eScript prescriptions have been approved. "Columbia University Medical Center is one of the top healthcare and research institutions in the world, and we're honored by their decision to work with us," noted Giovanni Colella, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Re...Doctors must consider potentially inappropriate medications when treating elderly
...priate medications. The information came from the prescriptions filled during the previous three months. They also gave the physicians a fax back form on which they could reply that they discontinued medication, assessed patient with no change indicated, decreased dosage, prescribed an alternative or did not pre...Study explores antibiotic misuse
...untries, where severe physician shortages preclude prescriptions for antibiotics, already are living the nightmare of common infections that no longer have a treatment. "In this country, the most dangerous bacteria we worry about is vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, a really nasty bug that can cause b...Study suggests obesity has lesser financial impact on African-Americans
...osts were not associated with inpatient care, only prescriptions and office visits. Wee says further study is required to determine why costs are lower for African Americans, but the data suggest several possibilities need to be examined. "Are these differences because of biological factors or are they a result of...Genetically targeted therapies create opportunities to do business in new ways
... Dr. Evans, it has been estimated that only 60% of prescriptions written produce the desired therapeutic benefits in patients. The remaining 40% either fail to produce a positive response or occasionally harm the patient. "In 2002, overall prescription drug spending in the U.S. was approximately $162 billion. A b...Pharmaceutical marketing tactics hold little sway with prescribing physicians
... sales calls and free samples on the number of new prescriptions the physician issued. A detailing visit typically lasts two to five minutes, and information about a drug's composition, therapeutic value, proper dosage and potential side effects is communicated. Although the effects of detailing and samplin...Is the '3 by 5' initiative the best approach to tackling the HIV pandemic?
... Kim, however, says that "while there are no sure prescriptions against plagues like HIV," setting a clear consensus target like "3 by 5" is "indispensable." He argues that scaling up treatment is essential to addressing the epidemic's devastating impact in much of Africa, critical for scaling up testing, counse...Study identifies factors associated with long-term opioid treatment of veteran patients
...AGO Veteran patients who receive long-term opioid prescriptions generally are treated with modest and stable medic...the study period, 47,302 patients received 177,840 prescriptions (initial and renewed prescriptions) for short-acting opioid medications, and 6,936 received 53,083 p...... were $1,340 in 2000. The average number of filled prescriptions for this population also rose substantially over time, averaging 18 filled prescriptions in 1992 and 30 filled prescriptions in 2000. An increasing number of older veterans are turning t...