Use of proven heart medicines improves, but not enough
...aid. "There are still doctors who are reluctant to prescribe these drugs to their sickest patients, maybe not realizing that potential side effects are far outweighed by the benefits. This represents a gap in our understanding why is it that health care providers appear to fear treating these patients as aggr...Genes' influence on common drugs may affect health-care quality, cost
...ter decisions about the right drugs and dosages to prescribe for their patients, making it possible to avoid unnecessary prescriptions and to minimize the costs of hospital treatments for adverse reactions." In an editorial in the same journal, Deepak Voora, M.D., chief medical resident, and Brian F. Gage, M.D...Tercica launches Increlex in the US
... commercial launch of Increlex, physicians can now prescribe a safe and effective drug backed by 321 patient-years of clinical trial treatment experience in children affected by severe Primary IGFD," said John A. Scarlett, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tercica. "In addition to a label with saf...Study demonstrates safety of oral contraceptives in women with lupus
...en with lupus, doctors have often been hesitant to prescribe one of the most effective forms of contraception ...embranes lining the nose and mouth. Reluctance to prescribe oral contraceptives and other hormones for women with lupus arose in part from the fact that lupus i...Digestive problems may impede overweight people from exercising
...octors treating overweight or obese patients often prescribe exercise as part of a regime to take off pounds. However, a new study indicates that some people's ability to exercise may be hampered by a variety of gastrointestinal problems that frequently affect individuals who are overweight. A team of resear...Can healthcare systems afford Herceptin for early breast cancer?
...the organisations advising them should not rush to prescribe it for early breast cancer without working out extremely carefully the budget implications and cost-effectiveness of the drug. In a Belgian study published (Wednesday 30 November) in Annals of Oncology[1], health economist Mattias Neyt said that if t......t to physicians in December 2002 advising them not prescribe Diane-35 for birth control or mild acne. In this brief report, Barbara Mintzes and Steve Morgan show that prescription rates for Diane-35 in British Columbia remained essentially unchanged after the warning. In January 2003, however, the CBC aired ...Warning labels on high-risk drugs inconsistently heeded by doctors
...s been no information about how frequently doctors prescribe BBW drugs, nor whether prescribing is consistent with the warnings. This study tells us that these drugs are prescribed often and that in some categories, prescribing is inconsistent with the warnings." Wagner, Richard Platt (chairman of DACP and pri......in reasons why many physicians may be reluctant to prescribe a treatment of proven efficacy and safety. The reasons include; the physicians' perception that patients would be reluctant to use a self-injectable therapy, the physicians' opinion that the patient would not be able to incorporate FUZEON into their ...Common anti-seizure drug could be effective for lupus patients
...rials to test its efficacy. While physicians could prescribe valproic acid "off-label" to lupus patients, "it is better to have a clinical trial to prove that it does help in lupus," Mishra said. Systemic lupus affects more than 1 million Americans, mostly women. About half of human patients with systemic lup...Study finds lifestyle modification and weight loss medication superior to either approach used alone
...onsistent with the manner in which most physicians prescribe weight loss medications. Individuals in the second group received group lifestyle modification alone, which is recommended as the first step of treatment for all overweight and obese individuals. They attended a total of 30 group sessions (90 minute...Lifestyle modification plus medication more effective than medication alone
...ts. The Guidelines also recommend that physicians prescribe a regimen of lifestyle therapy for at least six months before adding weight-loss medication to the regimen. More information on the NIH Obesity Clinical Guidelines is available on the NIH web site at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/ob_h...Fewer heart failure patients die when hospitals make efforts to improve care
...r means that a doctor is automatically prompted to prescribe certain drugs to all heart failure patients, except to those with underlying reasons not to take the drugs. Standards also included in-hospital counseling heart failure patients on stopping smoking, exercising, limiting their salt intake to prevent f...Aspirin reduces stroke risk in women, not men
...nces in how the genders response to other drugs we prescribe patients. This study raises the question for one d...hould provide a scientific basis for physicians to prescribe aspirin as a preventative measure for those women who do not suffer from the potential gastrointesti...Aspirin-a-day advice unheeded by those who need it, Stanford study finds
...ad, the research found, many doctors are opting to prescribe the more expensive, heavily marketed statin drugs, which are no more effective than aspirin in preventing heart disease. "What really concerns us is the degree of aspirin underutilization among patients who have already had a heart attack or a stroke...Children overprescribed antibiotics for sore throat
Physicians prescribe antibiotics for more than half of children with sore throat, exceeding the expected prevalence of strep throat, and used nonrecommended antibiotics for 27 percent of children who received an antibiotic prescription, according to a study in the Novemb...Situation-specific policies can reduce antibiotic resistance in hospital and community care
...ces can result in improvements in the ways doctors prescribe antibiotics and may lead to a reduction in resistant bacteria. In hospitals A systematic review of 66 different studies showed that improving the way that antibiotics are prescribed in hospital to inpatients can reduce antibiotic resistance and hos...More than 50% of surveyed Norwegian doctors self-prescribe
More than half of Norwegian doctors surveyed prescribe themselves medication, and most of them start self-prescribing just after leaving medical school. A study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine reveals that a large number of doctors in Norway start self-prescribing early after graduation...Dual therapy works best for controlling asthma
...heir work may help physicians decide when or if to prescribe LABA medications to asthma patients already taking inhaled steroids. "My sense is that there is a tendency to initiate combination therapy with inhaled corticosteroids and LABAs," rather than start with steroids and add LABA drugs later on in patien......of the things we need to remember to ask before we prescribe steroid treatment is whether the child has had a recent exposure to chicken pox," McLean said. "If so, we recommend waiting until the incubation period has passed before beginning steroid therapy." Steroids are a common and highly successful treatm...